CISA’s Second Entry In The Cyber Essentials Toolkits Series: Your Staff, The Users
Following their Cyber Essentials resource, CISA has rolled out an additional six Cyber Essentials Toolkits. The second is all about the user’s role in cybersecurity – after all, human error is reported to be the root cause of 95% of data breaches.
The question is: is your staff contributing to cybersecurity, or compromising it?
Does Your Staff Understand How To Participate In Cybersecurity?
User awareness is a fundamental part of effective cybersecurity. It can protect your organization from a range of threats. The fact is that a majority of cybersecurity services offered today include the best in vital technologies, from firewalls to anti-malware to data encryption and more. However, as important as this technology is, on its own, it simply isn’t enough.
Much of cybersecurity is dependent on the user, and as such, it’s vital that you properly educate your employees and volunteers in safe conduct. The more your workforce knows about the security measures you have in place, the more confidently they can use the technology is a secure manner.
According to CISA, all your end-users are core aspects of an organization’s “Culture of Cyber Readiness”. It’s up to leaders like you to promote a secure environment by providing the necessary training for your staff to keep them informed of dangerous cybercrime methods and how to mitigate the threat they pose to your organization.
Doing so requires users to follow CISA’s essential actions:
- Leveraging basic cybersecurity training to improve exposure to cybersecurity concepts, terminology, and activities associated with implementing cybersecurity best practices
- Developing a culture of awareness to encourage employees to make good choices online
- Learning about risks like phishing and business email compromise
- Identifying available training resources through professional associations, academic institutions, private sector, and government sources
- Maintaining awareness of current events related to cybersecurity, using lessons-learned and reported events to remain vigilant against the current threat environment and agile to cybersecurity trends
Case In Point: Can Your Staff Spot A Phishing Email?
Perhaps the best litmus test for a user’s cybersecurity awareness is whether they can spot a phishing email in their inbox. Phishing is a method in which cybercriminals send fraudulent emails that appear to be from reputable sources to get recipients to reveal sensitive information and execute significant financial transfers. Phishing attacks are mass emails that request confidential information or credentials under pretenses, link to malicious websites, or include malware as an attachment.
With only a surprisingly small amount of information, cybercriminals can convincingly pose as business members and superiors to persuade employees to give them money, data, or crucial information.
The fact is that businesses aren’t learning to protect themselves, which is why the number of reported phishing attacks has gone up by 65% in the past few years. Furthermore, the average phishing attack costs businesses $1.6 million.
Cybersecurity training is by far the most effective way to defend your organization from phishing. This method recognizes how important the user is in your cybersecurity efforts.
Kraft Technology Group Will Train Your Staff To Be More Secure
Our Cybersecurity Training services will offer exercises, interactive programs, and even simulated phishing attacks to test your staff on several key areas:
- How to identify and address suspicious emails, phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and more
- How to use business technology without exposing data and other assets to external threats by accident
- How to respond when you suspect that an attack is occurring or has occurred
There is no perfect technological solution that will save you from cybercrime’s social engineering techniques. It all comes down to you (and the other users at your business), and how knowledgeable you are about the most common cybercrime tactics in play today.
To get started, click here to get in touch with one of our experts or call us at (615) 600-4411.
