Are your Employees at risk from Cyber Ignorance?

Cyber attacks can have a devastating impact on businesses and personal lives in today’s digital world. These can be in the form of phishing emails, malware downloads, and data breaches. However, most cyber attacks can be avoided by building a strong culture of cyber awareness.

It’s estimated that 95% of data breaches are due to human error.

Employee error is the main reason that cyber-attacks occur within a business network. This is due to people not knowing any better and accidentally clicking on a phishing link or creating weak passwords subsequently allowing hackers to gain access.

Why does cyber awareness matter?

Cyber awareness is important to any business. Think of your business as a chain where your employees are the links of that chain. Strong links make the chain unbreakable and weak links can make the chain vulnerable. Ensuring your employees foster a culture of cyber awareness, they then become a strong link which in turn, makes your business more secure. 

Easy Steps that will make a big impact

Ensuring you and your employees are cyber-aware doesn’t require expensive training or complex strategies. Here are some easy steps to follow which will have a big impact.

1. It starts from the top.

It’s not just your employees that have to be cyber aware, when leadership gets involved, it sends a powerful message to the organisation. Leadership can show their commitment by:

2. Creating fun but informative training sessions.

Using engaging videos, quizzes and real-life scenarios that relate to your business will stop the training feeling dry and boring and will keep employees engaged.

An example of these would be:

3. Make the information understandable

Cyber security terms can be confusing so ensure the information is clear, in plain language and it avoids using technical jargon.

4. Keep training sessions short

Employees may become overwhelmed with lengthy training sessions. Therefore, by keeping them short yet still engaging, will ensure that your employees digest the information and remember it.

5. Keeping your employees alert

To ensure your employees are staying alert at all times, you can send them simulated phishing emails that track who clicks the phishing link. You can then use this data to educate your employees on how to spot red flags and how to report messages they believe to be suspicious.

In another training session, you can then use this email and dissect it, pointing out the telltale signs of phishing and how to identify that it was fake.

6. Encourage the reporting of suspicious activities

You will need to ensure that your employees feel comfortable to report what they believe to be suspicious activity without fear of blame. By creating a reporting system, can allow your employees to report with ease. You can do this through:

7. Empower your employees

Within your team, by identifying those employees who are enthusiastic, you can make them “Security Champions”. These champions can then be available to answer questions relating to cyber security from peers, can promote best practices and can ensure that cyber security awareness is not forgotten.

8. Security beyond the workplace. 

Cyber security isn’t just important at work but is also important at home. Educate your employees on how to be cyber aware and how to protect themselves at home too.

Share tips on:

Employees who practise good security habits at home are more likely to do so in the workplace.

9. Celebrate the achievements

Celebrate the achievements of employees who recognise possible threats. This could be a result of:

Recognition is a powerful tool as it helps reinforce positive behaviour and can encourage your employees to continue being vigilant.

10. Using technology to increase productivity.

Technology can be a huge asset and can aid you and your company to become more cyber aware. Using online training courses can track an employee’s progress and highlight where their strengths and weaknesses are, allowing you to focus on certain areas. You can also schedule the automated phishing simulations regularly which will keep cyber awareness at the forefront of your employees minds. 

Tools that bolster employee security include:

Everyone is responsible

Cyber security is a shared responsibility and is also an ongoing process. As technology changes, so do the security risks. Therefore, ensure you are keeping up to date with training within your business and make sure you’re always revisiting steps as repetition is key. Make security awareness a natural part of your organisation's DNA.

Get in touch

If you are unsure where to start with creating your culture of cyber awareness, please contact us and we can point you in the right direction.