As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated and prevalent, companies must put increasing faith in their employees to ensure that they don’t put data at risk or fall victim to ransomware.
Employees are getting busier than ever, balancing work and life as they work from home – making it more challenging to create a cyber-security culture. Creating a stout company culture throughout the organization can flow in and out of a security operation center (SOC), allowing workers to stay on top of their security concerns as a matter of course.
For many organizations, especially looking at today’s uncertain economy, cybersecurity is still an afterthought, and as an enterprise subject, it remains undervalued. As the threat landscape expands into a more grueling territory, companies can benefit by ensuring that employees have a certain degree of threat awareness. A well-designed awareness program is useful to generate huge benefits, promoting a healthy culture of cybersecurity.
Employees are the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain
Security breaches usually boil down directly to the worst or negligent employees. And, keeping them up to the pace on the importance of security is a real challenge.
Humans get caught up in daily workloads without realizing the importance of security. Even before the age of ransomware, extensive malware, and sophisticated threats, training employees on cybersecurity best practices was a challenge. And, CISOs and security professionals still struggle with the same concerns today. However, many businesses are in a better position to establish a cyber-security culture throughout their organization.
To build the awareness and culture of cybersecurity, firms need to promote security awareness internally, and establish relevant and engaging programs that can be promoted from the top down.
Employee Training to Establish the Culture
Sometimes it’s the unconventional methods of cyber security training that produce unpredictably great results. For most employees, the perception of cyber security is that of a tedious discipline.
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Training is the best way to help employees to understand the relevance of software and network policies, carrying some of the security load. Straightforward strategies like forcing devices to lock or shut-down, using secure password management systems automatically, or deploying endpoint management software can work wonders. When the number of security-related decisions employees make on a given day are reduced, the company benefits as the risks also reduce.
By addressing most security headaches with smart solutions and policies, the pain points are reduced significantly while promoting security awareness and culture.
However, while training the workforce, employee empowerment remains critical. To change behavior, there must be reasonable actions behind such messaging. And, scaring people while declaring vulnerabilities about security rarely works. Employees need to be elaborately explained on ‘how’ and ‘why.’ If they don’t feel empowered, their involvement and caution will be minimal.
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Now more than ever, the IT decision-makers have to get their hands full with the current work from a home movement that currently doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. One thing that hasn’t and won’t change, is that employees are the last line of defense against the threat actors. That’s where the empowerment has to begin, and that’s where the defense will be strongest.
