SpartanTec, Inc. Wilmington: Employee Cybersecurity Training

Cybersecurity issues will be a growing threat to businesses in the future, despite numerous technological advancements. As more people started working remotely, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a spike in cybersecurity issues. Its subsequent financial recession has made it difficult for companies to implement and maintain satisfactory cybersecurity practices.

Many organizations’ data is still unprotected, which makes them vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks.

cybersecurity awareness training programs are essential in today’s workplace, both at the office and at home. Learn seven essential ways to improve the effectiveness of your employee program.

A recent Stanford University study found that human error is the greatest threat to cybersecurity. According to this study, 88 percent of data breaches were caused by employee errors. The study found that younger employees are more likely to be phished and to admit to making mistakes than older employees.

A study by IBM that examined thousands of customers across 130 countries found that human error was a significant contributor to 95 percent of all breaches. In other words, 19 of the 20 breaches that were analyzed in this IBM study could have been prevented if human error was not present. These results show that even the most advanced technical security measures are not stronger or more resilient than those who apply them. The first step to protecting your company against cyber threats is understanding the importance of human error. A proactive approach is essential to successfully reduce risk in the future.

7 essential steps to cybersecurity awareness training

#1. Cybersecurity education for employees is ongoing

Your employees will be more successful in protecting your company and assets from phishing, malware, or other threats if they are more aware of them. By investing in cyber literacy, your employees will be more aware of the importance and motivated to do a better job.

Cyber security awareness training is not enough to raise awareness. Top-performing cybersecurity awareness programs use a variety of scenarios to help employees understand what they need to be aware of and why. These programs don’t come on a one-and-done basis. They are held regularly, while continually incorporating new and relevant knowledge.

Is your IT staff qualified to provide on-going awareness training? Are the up-to-date with the current threats that could affect your company? SpartanTec in Wilmington can provide co-managed services that work with your team to ensure the highest quality training and protection for your network.

#2. A hands-on approach in learning

Your employees are only as effective as the practices taught to them about cybersecurity awareness when they actually put them into practice. Your cybersecurity awareness program must go beyond mere training to ensure that your employees are able to prevent attacks such as phishing emails.

Training is not enough. A plan must be in place to follow-up and ensure the practices are being followed.

Instead, make sure that your employees learn the knowledge you impart through your training program. Employees will learn the most from that knowledge when they put it into practice. SpartanTec uses a hands-on approach combined procedural learning with highly relevant, contextual and immediate feedback. All parties involved will gain a better understanding of the subject and form memories that can change their habits or eliminate mistakes.

#3. Targeted Groups Based on Risks

Cyberattacks can be more dangerous to certain employees than to others. Statistics show that less than 20% of employees are responsible for the majority of human error-induced losses.

You can get a better understanding of your risk groups by micro-segmentation. These insights will help you to:

You will be better able to understand the different levels of risk that employees invite into your organization.
You can identify more specific actions based on each employee and the associated risks.
Supervise groups of employees to make monitoring more cost-effective, as opposed to individual workers, and still protect their privacy.

#4. The Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics takes your targeted persona groups up to the next level. Analytics allows you to identify high-risk individuals and monitor them for potential threats using specific markers. This will allow you to identify and monitor high-risk individuals before they become threats. You can then take preventive action.

Machine learning advances allow you to use data to create predictive behavior that will optimize the learning experience for your employees. For improved performance, you can provide extensive cybersecurity awareness employee training that includes contextual delivery during regular intervals.

#5. Real-time feedback

Real-time feedback, as we have mentioned, is an effective way to engage employees. It allows them to internalize and recall why they are doing, what they can change, and helps them avoid making mistakes.

By providing feedback, you show your employees the security gap that exists between them and the organization–evidence of their need for security training in the first place. Employees will quickly understand what happened and how to avoid similar mistakes in the future when they receive real-time feedback on security incidents.

This “nibble-sized” approach allows employees to take advantage of learning opportunities that are relevant to their daily lives. They can quickly identify the training they need and then engage with it when it is most important.

#6. Change in Culture

A deeper approach to cybersecurity awareness training will eliminate the co-opting and negligence that can lead to human error. It encourages cultural change by addressing employee attitudes and beliefs head-on.

This is a highly personal task that addresses the motivations for malicious behavior and how employees see them. Instead of employees just going through their daily routines, you foster an environment of employee engagement. Using a third-party such as SpartanTec to provide the training eliminates bias and takes away any perceived personal agenda.

Continuously delivering the awareness “bites” will help transform your organization’s cybersecurity culture. These “bites” should be:

engaging
easy to use
seamless integration into the daily work routines of your employees.

An interactive and informative email newsletter on cybersecurity can be used to provide employees with relevant information and quiz them about it, reinforcing their knowledge at regular intervals. These newsletters can be automatically deployed and tracked online to see how successful your cultural revolution is.

#7. Scientific training method

For long-term, optimal results, you should adopt a scientific training methodology. This method combines learning expertise, data science and automation to make security awareness training simple and efficient for businesses. This platform leverages your data to maximize the learning experience for each employee every day.

You can use a scientific training platform to:

To improve employee performance, analyze the data.
To keep it top-of-mind, you must provide continuous learning that is not boring.
To optimize contextual delivery, you can achieve effective performance.
To create strong cognitive patterns, use diverse stimuli that are relevant and applicable.
To make learning relevant and memorable, engage in just-in time learning.
Training at flexible intervals is possible that can be adjusted to each employee’s learning curve.

This combination of tips will give you complete security awareness.

Final thoughts

These seven principles will help you reduce the number of malicious attacks that are caused by employee error. This will increase employee engagement and empower them to protect your valuable assets and your bottom line.