Cyber security is a collective effort, and at the core of any successful strategy are the people who put words into action every day.
Making sure they’re tuned into the latest threats – and even the most basic ones – plays a crucial role in avoiding a data breach.
That’s why every October, enterprises across Europe and the US take part in cyber security awareness month. The annual programme is supported by the National Cyber Security Alliance, European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) and a variety of respected organisations in the industry.
Every business’ goal in October should be to promote better policies surrounding employee awareness training, which can be a deciding factor as to whether an account becomes compromised. Using our cyber security kit can help you jumpstart a programme and get the company on the right track.
Why take part in National Cyber Security Awareness Month?
In many cases, there’s nothing high-tech involved in a cyber-attack. Sometimes all it takes to compromise a system is getting an employee to willingly hand over their account details.
Hackers know this and are beginning to cater their strategies to exploit it. But there’s a misconception brewing around the fact that these campaigns target managers and C-suite executives.
In reality, three out of every five phishing campaigns went after the bottom rung of an organisation between April and June 2018, researchers at Proofpoint reported. These are entry-level employees and mid-level managers who could potentially have read and write access to systems that contain highly sensitive data.
The findings come on the back of a 36 percent increase in phishing activity between Q1 and Q2 of 2018, according to the study.
It’s a concerning development considering business’ general inability to identify hackers quickly after they’ve gained access. Over two-thirds of all attacks studied in the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report went undetected for months.
The workforce is the frontline of defence in keeping many types of cyber-attacks at bay. Companies are now understanding that investing in employee awareness training can present itself as positive ROI by reducing the number of entry points that threat actors have when infiltrating an enterprise network.
Get started with employee awareness training today
Building a corporate culture that’s security-driven isn’t easy – we understand. It’s why we’ve taken the time to put together a comprehensive cyber security kit that contains everything you need to know to start forming your strategy.
In our cyber security kit you’ll find:
- Six questions that will kickstart your brainstorming session.
- Four stages that help assess where your business stands in terms of security awareness maturity.
- Three tips to help you implement a successful security awareness campaign.
- Ideas to help get people motivated to learn about cyber security.
- Threats that impact your workforce the most.
- How to tailor your messages to specific target audiences.
- Useful resources to support your programme.
- How to track the results and plan for the future.
- A glossary of commonly used cyber security terms.
Don’t wait another year to revamp your security awareness strategy – get started today.
Contact Integrity360 today and visit our cloud security services page to learn more
