Guest Contribution by James Daniels
Cybersecurity is something that every business needs to be concerned about1. Protecting your business’s online assets, data, and general security from threats from the internet is essential in keeping your business running, and also in keeping it compliant with industry standards and international regulations.
Within most companies, just about every employee has some degree of responsibility towards upholding cybersecurity policies and helping to avoid risks in this regard. However, the training given, particularly to staff outside of IT roles, is often minimal or practically non-existent. Here we look at why your business needs to make sure that every individual receives good cybersecurity awareness training, and how to do it.
Staff Need to Understand Their Role in Keeping the Company Safe
For many staff in businesses, the only real training they get about cybersecurity is a quick CBT as part of their orientation to the company, or just being asked to read and comply with a list of policies kept somewhere on the intranet. This may make a business feel like it’s checking the boxes in terms of ensuring everyone has had some mandatory training, but in reality, it can lead to staff seeing this subject as a very low priority, and not really giving it much attention. Staff can generally find cybersecurity policies to be a minor annoyance, too, for instance, they may be frustrated about having to change passwords regularly or with how long it takes to apply for access to certain systems.
When employees are fully aware of just how real the risks2 associated with cyber threats are, and how important it is to do what is expected of them to help mitigate these risks, they are far more likely to remember and value the policies they have to follow, and less likely to see them as an inconvenience.
Many Companies Offer Inadequate One-Off Training
As well as training often being inadequate, another issue with many companies is that their cybersecurity training forms part of the staff initiation, and is then never repeated or updated. Staff who have been with the company for years will not have been trained on what the current threats are, and may only have had brief instructions when new systems have been rolled out as to what they now need to think about in terms of security.
Comprehensive Training and Regular Updates Are Essential
Work with a company that specializes in cybersecurity awareness training to ensure that you are granting your workforce the training they need to fully appreciate their role in protecting the business from cybersecurity threats. Training should include everybody, though it may need to be tailored to suit different departments with specific cybersecurity requirements, for instance, those who handle sensitive data or who work on the company’s IT infrastructure itself. There should also be regular updates, perhaps annually, or whenever new regulations or internal policies are introduced, to make sure that people are aware of the most current risks and approaches.
With the right protocols for training your workforce, you can make sure that your internal staff is not creating greater cybersecurity risks through a lack of understanding or knowledge.
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