Business owners today are familiar with cybersecurity, but some don’t realize how important it’s become for the survival of their companies. So, why should you focus on cybersecurity? Surveys have indicated that over 90% of American companies have been hacked by cybercriminals attempting to steal/change their information.
International corporations can probably tolerate these instances of data breaches/leakages. However, small-sized businesses are more vulnerable to cybercriminals. It’s believed that almost 60% of small-sized companies collapse within six months after a breach. That’s why teaching cybersecurity protocols to your employees has become a major concern among business owners now.
Educating your employees about cybersecurity challenges
What’s the state of cybersecurity awareness among your employees? Statistics have revealed that 24% of workers don’t think clicking on suspicious attachments is dangerous. Similarly, one-third of employees consider it harmless to allow family members to utilize work-related devices for searching the internet.
Business owners should ensure that their workforce gets proper training on tackling cybersecurity challenges. There are several methods of training your employees, and discussing them can help enhance your workforce’s cybersecurity awareness. And that’s why we’re writing down these words to help you train your employees properly.
So, here’s what organizations can do now to handle this issue:
- Educate your employees
The first stage of training your employees about cybersecurity challenges is to educate them about these problems. Teach them which cyber security issues they may face while surfing online. A worker should be aware of DDoS, phishing, ransomware, social engineering, and other tactics most cybercriminals use to attack a company.
Educating your workforce about these problems helps them stay cautious. Furthermore, this education should be a part of their ongoing security training.
- Avoid blaming them
Secondly, we believe you should refrain from blaming your employees. Most people are unaware of how to ensure their safety in the digital world. When something goes wrong, you can’t consider just some hapless worker responsible for clicking on a spam link and accidentally leaking your data.
Besides, your company is responsible for training every worker about the threats posed by cybercriminals. Instead of blaming someone, business owners must focus on training their workforce about online safety.
- Make it mandatory
However, you can blame them after they receive cybersecurity education and training.
Every worker should become familiar with the dangers of phishing and how they can recognize any suspicious activity. This mandatory training can help your employees learn why it’s crucial to follow correct internet browsing practices. They must realize that carelessly utilizing public wi-fi means you are sharing your information with hackers nearby. So, train your folks to enhance their awareness.
- Teach best practices
What are those internet browsing practices we mentioned before? We’ve talked about how workers shouldn’t utilize public wi-fi when sharing sensitive information with their colleagues. Likewise, use the company-provided VPN to improve your connection’s invisibility to hackers. Don’t use the work-related computer for personal internet searching.
Likewise, learn the dangers of forgetting your laptop on the bus since it may become compromised. Create this understanding among your workers now.
- Onboard with cybersecurity
Make cybersecurity education a component of your company’s onboarding procedure. Ensure that recruits are familiar with the threats posed by cybercriminals. That’s how you can delegate essential responsibilities to well-trained individuals.
Give recruits some important guidelines on why it’s crucial to stay safe while surfing online. Teach them about email etiquette and the penalty they can face for not reporting suspicious activities. Cybersecurity pre-training should also become mandatory.
- Encourage device care
Workers shouldn’t be careless about work-related devices. Surveys show that stolen/missing devices cause 15% of breaches. Make your employees understand how to use these devices carefully, even when working from home. Tell them the difference between personal and corporate usage.
Also, workers should create backups on the cloud to ensure they don’t lose their data if the device gets lost. That’s how your workers can make your company secure.
- Practice password security
Unfortunately, many Americans are using “12345”, “QWERTY,” and even “password” as passwords. Educate your employees about creating stronger passwords that are difficult to guess. Making easy-to-guess passwords will only threaten the security of your company.
While creating hard-to-guess and complex-beyond-comprehension passwords, your workers must enable 2FA. As a result, enabling two-factor authentication stops hackers from accessing an account even if they crack the password.
- Deliver understandable messages
Do you think your company’s providing inadequate cybersecurity training? Well, that’s because you’re not using easy-to-understand terms while communicating this information. Ensure the IT guys use common and jargon-free words when discussing cybersecurity challenges.
Using jargon will only make matters worse and confuse your workforce. For instance, don’t mention threats to the network when you can state how workers’ PCs are at risk from external threats.
- Spotting suspicious activities
Are your workers aware of what suspicious activities look like these days? For instance, finding an application/software you didn’t install on your phone can be suspicious. Also, devices may start slowing down when they have been compromised.
Losing control of your mouse/keyboard can also cause suspicion that an internet criminal has overtaken the device. Your employees should report these suspicious activities to ensure they weren’t false alarms. That’s how your organization can prevent data breaches.
- Keep reminding them
Cybersecurity education should become a continuous procedure. Your employees may easily forget about cybersecurity challenges unless you keep reminding them about them once in a while.
Business owners must practice cybersecurity awareness and include information about this vital issue in their email newsletters. The manager should remain wary of cyberattacks to ensure the workforce is also cautious. So, don’t forget to remind them about all the potential cybersecurity challenges and issues.
Conclusion
We’ve established that employers must tackle cybersecurity challenges by informing workers about the threats of data breaches/leakages. So, did you educate your employees effectively? We believe that you should make cybersecurity training mandatory and include it in your onboarding process. Likewise, business owners must keep reminding their employees about cybersecurity. Workers should create stronger passwords, recognize suspicious activities, and take care of their devices if they work from home. Also, don’t forget to deliver cybersecurity training in an easy-to-understand manner. That’s how you can ensure that your employees are ready to tackle cybersecurity challenges in this tech-reliant world.
