What Can CISOs Do to Educate Employees on Cybersecurity?

During the pandemic, millions of workers moved to remote working models. Without a doubt, this makes protecting data and applications challenging for businesses. Remote work, while offering a lot of freedom, blurs the distinction between official work and personal time, as employees juggle between work-related apps and personal stuff, such as social media and online shopping platforms, it increases the risk of cyber-attacks.

Apart from hiring corporate risk managers and IT managers, and implementing security defense solutions (firewalls) and protection systems (IDPS), companies must now conduct training for all employees as part of their security strategy to reduce their exposure to data integrity attacks and other threats.

As security breaches become even more common, incorporating security awareness within a business can help mitigate risks. End-user education can help reduce the risk of becoming a victim of a cyber-attack that targets one of the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain: end-users.

Human resource and training staff should concentrate on assisting employees in preventing cyber-attacks while accessing emails or social media platforms, particularly while utilizing company-provided technology. Despite the fact that network firewalls can prevent hackers from gaining access to company data, employee apps can leave them vulnerable. This explains why firms should provide cybersecurity training to their staff. To make staff training easier, use the suggestions below.

Communicate the potential consequences of a cybersecurity breach

Explaining the effects of a cybersecurity breach on the organization is the best method to get employees’ attention. This involves financial loss, fines, and a loss of customer confidence. Businesses must show them what can happen if an employee leaves his or her laptop unattended, uses public WIFI to access work-related documents, or uses a work device to read personal emails. Surprisingly, most employees are unaware of the risks of exposing the company to these regular behaviors.

Enhance cybersecurity messaging

The use of appropriate messaging is the first guideline in offering effective cybersecurity education to employees. In most situations, IT teams use jargon that ordinary employees find difficult to understand. In general, the messaging should be easy to understand, diverse, and relatable. Easy-to-understand messaging avoids technical jargon that can cause confusion and cloud the message. If at all possible, businesses must utilize basic terminology that non-technical employees can grasp. It’s also important for the training to be relatable.

Last but not least, the training should be on a consistent messaging basis over a period of time. It’s possible that a single email summarizing everything won’t suffice. Employees can easily read the email and dismiss it as simply another internal memo, given the large number of emails they receive every day from sales departments, clients, and prospects.

Also Read: Most Financial Services Firms Are Not Focusing on Application Security

Teach employees about the various types of cyber-threats that exist

Employees should have a basic understanding of the common types of cybersecurity issues and how they present in order to identify and prevent a breach. Businesses should educate their employees on spam, malware and ransomware, phishing, and social engineering to do this.

Organizations should begin with spam, the most fundamental and widespread cybersecurity issue. Instruct them on how to recognize spam in emails and social media messaging. Companies should also conduct phishing training that includes real-life examples of phishing scams to help employees distinguish between genuine and fraudulent emails.

During the training, cybersecurity tips for preventing malware, ransomware, and social engineering should be addressed. Apart from that, businesses should give their employees tips on how to recognize harmful activity on their devices.

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