Both small and large-scale businesses are constantly under the threat of cyberattacks. Cyberattacks steal company data and demand ransom in exchange for its release. Therefore, as a business owner or manager, you must find ways to ensure it doesn’t happen.
One way is to invest in training your employees. An ongoing security awareness training for all your workers is a highly recommended security measure. A cyber-aware employee will save you more dollars than an unaware one with cybersecurity software.
Below, we discuss four important things you should train your employees on.
Inform your employees about the consequences of cybersecurity incidents
Your employees are your first and last line of defense. If they are ignorant of good cybersecurity practices, your company is at great risk of an attack. You have to let them know their role in keeping the business data safe and ensuring the smooth running of business operations.
Equip them with practical knowledge of what to do when they encounter cyber threats.
Let them know how expensive and disastrous a cyber-attack is for the company and its customers. The case of the 2021 Colonial Pipeline Ransomware attack and how it disrupted the fuel supply chain in the United States is a good starting point.
Ensure they have a proper security software
A lot of processes in the workplace require some sort of software to complete. Insecure software or ignorance of the right way to use them are risk factors for cyber-attacks. To prevent these attacks, your employees must use secure software effectively – equip them with it and train them on its usage.
Anti-phishing add-ons, firewalls, and encryption software are key software you must provide and teach your employees to use effectively.
Teach them to recognize phishing and social engineering attacks
Phishing and other social engineering techniques lure people into believing in the legitimacy of an illegitimate scheme. Whether putting you in a false sense of urgency or exploiting your ignorance, the malicious agent behind a phishing scam depends on you being unaware or hasty to achieve their aims.
Therefore, vigilance is key. Your training should help your employees understand what a phishing attack entails.
Teach them the fundamentals of anti-phishing practices:
- Never click suspicious links.
- Never click on pop-ups.
- Never download files from suspicious emails or websites.
- Verify the trustworthiness of a site by checking its URL. Secure sites begin with “HTTPS“.
- Click on links only on trusted sites. A site is trusted when you can ascertain its relevance and administrators.
Strong password etiquette matters
Strong passwords are fundamental parts of an effective cyber-security defense. However, poor etiquette can turn this measure on itself. It makes it easy for malicious agents to find their way around passwords.
You should train your employees on how to manage sensitive information. They should learn never to reveal information or their passwords to anyone. There should be regulations that ensure that just enough information required for their jobs is given to the employees.
Conclusion
If your business has been a victim of ransomware attacks, you know it is a long, expensive, and difficult process to recover.
You should teach your employees the best practices of cyber security. Teach them good internet etiquette, how to manage passwords, and how to avoid cyberattacks. Besides training, equip your employees with the necessary tools for defense against any cybersecurity attack.
Keep in mind that these are not one-time actions. You must stay up-to-date on the changes happening in the digital world and take corresponding steps to adapt.
The saying — Prevention is better than cure — is arguably the best advice you can get from a cyber-security expert. It is much easier to stop an attack than recover from it. Put your company in a better position cybersecurity-wise by training your employees. It will be worth it.
