Your Employee's Cyber Awareness Is Critical

As part of the Coronavirus lockdown, non-essential businesses were forced to close their physical premises and move to ways of remote working to continue functioning and because of the less cyber secure home-working in 2020, organisations saw an increase in both ransomware and phishing attacks. On top of all the current cyber security issues with the virus, phishing scams have significantly increased.

Cyber criminals wasted no time in exploiting this opportunity, casting thousands of COVID-related lures onto perhaps more vulnerable than usual users.

According to thier 2021 State of the Phish Report  from Proofpoint, the majority (92%) of UK organisations required or  requested that most employees work from home due to the pandemic, which presented its fair share of teething problems, some of which organisations are still experiencing to this day. Organisational preparedness for remote working is not great and employees were not well-equipped to work remotely. In response, many organisations increased security awareness training and many organisations offered training on how to stay safe while working remotely.

While implementation of additional training is certainly good news, it should not take a global health crisis for organisations to prioritize security awareness.

To be effective, cybersecurity training must take place regularly, continually adapting to address the threats of the moment. It must be a central part of an organization’s security program, all year round. In the first half of 2020 cyber criminals took advantage of the heightened interest surrounding the pandemic, resulting in a flood to phishing email  unlike anything Proofpoint researchers research team has ever seen. While the tactics changed throughout the year, the target remained the same. Some offered cures, others promised speedy tests and priority access to vaccines. Many encouraged victims to hand over valuable credentials.

An appetite for the latest COVID-19 developments was just one factor fueling the phishing fire. Cyber criminals also struck at a time of significant disruption and distraction. 

Many organisations, recognising the elevated risk, conducted COVID-specific security awareness training. Results were good in test conditions too. Average failure rates for the most frequently used COVID-related lures ranged from less than 1% to around 20%. However, awareness is not quite enough. Security best practice behavior only really changes when employees are embedded in the program. For example, an employee receiving a notification to confirm that the potential phishing email they reported was in fact malicious, helps to drive and incentivise a security-first culture, however, this level of training is rare.

Only 64% of organisations conduct formal training sessions, either virtually or in person. For almost two-thirds, training of any sort takes place no more than four times a year. And 36% only train users in certain roles or departments.

Failure to equip employees with the knowledge to detect and deter such attacks is negligent and the response to COVID-related phishing attacks has shown that relevant, targeted, and in-context security awareness training works. Rather than reverting to type once the pandemic subsides, organisations must use this experience to implement long-term training programs that actively seek to change risky behaviors. Programs that focus on the individual and adapt to current, real-world threats.

This is only possible by placing users at the heart of your defence. They are often the only thing standing between the success and failure of an attack. The level of training they receive needs to reflect these high stakes.

Security awareness training must go beyond jargon, definitions of common threats, and multiple-choice tests. It must leave users in no doubt about their responsibilities and the consequences of failing to uphold them. When you deliver this comprehensive, people-centric training regularly, you create a security culture. A culture in which your people understand how simple behaviors can put your organisation at risk. In which all users know how to prevent, detect and deter cyber-attacks and in which best practice becomes standard practice.

The executive business decision-makers are important stakeholders in your organisation, but for security awareness training, users are the most important stakeholders. 

User engagement is critical if you want to make security a core part of your organisation’s culture, making sure that your workforce is aware of the basic cyber security behaviors is also critically important in this new environment. Organisations must have a culture of data security and data privacy and employees need to understand that they are the caretakers of their own organisation’s valuable and often sensitive data, much of which also consists of customer information.

Business need cyber security training and we at Cyber Security Intelligence recommend GoCyber training for all employees and management – it is excellent – please contact us for a free trial.

Proofpoint:   NCSC:   Infosecurity Magazine:   NCSC:       Infosecurity Magazine:     Action Fraud:    Image: Unsplash

You Might Also Read: 

How Has A Year Of Pandemic Changed Cyber Security?:

 

« The European Union Adopts A Cyber Security Strategy
The Satanic Mills of the Fourth Industrial Revolution »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout enables cyber security professionals to reduce cyber risk to their organization with proactive security solutions, providing immediate improvement in security posture and ROI.

Perimeter 81 / How to Select the Right ZTNA Solution

Perimeter 81 / How to Select the Right ZTNA Solution

Gartner insights into How to Select the Right ZTNA offering. Download this FREE report for a limited time only.

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

TSUNAMI

TSUNAMI

The TSUNAMi center focuses on software and system security and how trustworthy software can be built from COTS software components.

Anomali

Anomali

Anomali delivers intelligence-driven cybersecurity solutions to enhance threat visibility, automate threat processing and detection, and accelerate threat investigation, response, and remediation.

SecureMetric Technology

SecureMetric Technology

SecureMetric is one of SE Asia’s leading players in the field of digital security with a focus on Software Licensing Protection, 2-Factor Authentication, Advanced Identity and Access Management, Publi

TunnelBear

TunnelBear

TunnelBear is a Virtual Private Network services provider offering secure encrypted access to the internet.

ZeroNorth

ZeroNorth

ZeroNorth provides a new approach to improve software and infrastructure security, simplify continuous compliance reporting and to create more cost-effective risk management programs.

Absolute IT Asset Disposals

Absolute IT Asset Disposals

Absolute IT Asset Disposals is an IT asset disposal (ITAD) company providing safe and secure recycling of IT assets.

Agio

Agio

Agio is a hybrid managed IT and cybersecurity provider servicing the financial services, health care and payments industries.

CyVolve

CyVolve

Cyvolve is the next great leap forward in data security, ensuring constant encryption and pervasive control over all your data.

StartupXseed Ventures

StartupXseed Ventures

StartupXseed Ventures is a smart capital provider for Deep Tech, B2B, Early Stage Startups. We support, NextGen Tech Entrepreneurs, who have potential to deliver the outsized growth.

Carson McDowell

Carson McDowell

Carson McDowell are one of Northern Ireland's leading law firms. We are the law firm of choice for many of Northern Ireland's Top 100 companies as well as international companies doing business here.

GitProtect.io

GitProtect.io

​GitProtect is a fully manageable, professional GitHub and Bitbucket backup and recovery software that protects repositories and metadata from any event of failure.

Cyber Bytes Foundation

Cyber Bytes Foundation

Cyber Bytes Foundation exists to establish and sustain a unique Cyber Ecosystem to accelerate the development of a strong Cyber workforce and support community outreach programs.

Feroot Security

Feroot Security

Feroot Security secures client-side web applications so that businesses can deliver a flawless user experience to their customers. Our products help organizations protect their client-side surface.

Kompleye

Kompleye

Kompleye is a recognized cybersecurity and compliance audit organization that offer a comprehensive solution for different industries.

TempoCap

TempoCap

TempoCap is a European growth-stage technology fund with offices in London and Berlin. We invest across a variety of high- growth sectors including cybersecurity.

Hush

Hush

Hush is a premium privacy service that gives people unprecedented visibility and control of their digital footprint. Hush assesses threats, and goes to work to eliminate digital risks on your behalf.

FusionAuth

FusionAuth

FusionAuth is the customer authentication and authorization platform that makes developers' lives awesome.