Organizations must provide advanced, year-round training to all employees to effectively reduce human error, combat constant cybersecurity threats, and limit the punitive costs of breaches. The best defense against threat actors is to have cybersecurity advocates within the company.
The more security issues non-technical staff employees are aware of, the better they will be able to spot, report, and potentially avoid threats.
Organizations can use comprehensive security training to involve employees in the fight against cyber threats. At the same time, cybersecurity teams value such training since it allows them to have informed employees who can back up their own expertise.
Year-Round Training
Most businesses depend too heavily on their cybersecurity professionals to keep them safe from threats, forgetting the harsh reality that human error is the leading source of security breaches.
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Human error is the cause of up to 95 percent of cybersecurity breaches, according to IBM’s “2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report,” which predicts that a data breach costs an enterprise on average US$4.24 million per incident.
Raising all employees’ understanding of cybersecurity issues can substantially reduce human error. Year-round training is the most effective approach to accomplish this. Employees should attend regular training classes that include both theory and hands-on learning in order to gain and retain knowledge. Employees cannot gain tangible cyber skills with only occasional training.
Training that goes beyond the basics
Every year, too many companies expose their employees to the same basic content, such as ‘how to recognise a phishing email,’ ‘understanding malware and ransomware,’ and ‘the perils of opening unfamiliar attachments,’ among other topics.
While legacy security awareness products like simulated phishing and video-based training are vital and beneficial, relying too much on them does a disservice to employees’ cybersecurity curiosity, which is best addressed through hands-on training.
Given the complex, multi-pronged attack strategies utilized by cyber criminals, offering cybersecurity training across all departments is crucial. Cross-trained employees from IT, DevOps, and other areas can significantly improve a company’s overall security culture.
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Hands-on Training for Employees
Cybersecurity practitioners can use a variety of resources, including free ones, to introduce interested employees to security concepts in action.
An outline that covers basic cybersecurity concepts and terminology, as well as an overview of the threat landscape, and then digs into the nuts and bolts of cybersecurity, digital forensics, security operations, data analysis, and so on, is a solid approach to get started.
Ideally, the security team should provide employees with a number of comprehensive modules that include both theory and practise. This technique can improve cybersecurity literacy throughout all the departments in the organization.
New Cybersecurity Advocates
A tour of the security operations center (SOC) or even a more hands-on day in the life of the SOC can also be arranged by cybersecurity teams. Modules and challenges that present real threats, real IT infrastructure, and solutions should be the focus of the day visit.
The purpose of the tour should be to encourage new cybersecurity advocates across departments and to find hidden talent who would be excellent for a SOC Analyst role.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month can be used to hold more participatory cybersecurity activities traditionally intended for cyber practitioners, as skills develop over time. This is a good approach to include team achievement, individual recognition and gamification into a cybersecurity culture that all employees can understand and appreciate.
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