Employee Awareness is the Best Protection Against Cyber Threats

What your employees don’t know about cyber security could hurt you — and your organization. A recent study of data breaches found that 95% of the breaches could be traced to human error.

What is Employee Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training is a formal education process consisting of videos, articles, and simulated threat tests that inform employees and third-party stakeholders on how to protect computer systems, data, people, and other assets in an organization from internet-based threats or criminals.

What should be included in security awareness training?

Because human error is the cause of 95% of cybersecurity breaches, it's critical to minimize the chance of user-related data breaches with thorough education and regulatory compliance. Otherwise, employee cyber risk is more likely.

Many treat employee security awareness training as a one-and-done exercise, however, good security awareness training is ongoing. It's the result of ongoing training that enables employees the ability to identify modern threats, combat them, and implement best practices for maintaining security.

The top 10 cyber security awareness training topics:

Is security awareness training mandatory?

According to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), federal agencies are required to establish a security awareness training program as well as the contractors and “other uses of information systems” supporting the agency.

Because healthcare organizations have access to computer equipment and software that contains Protected Health Information (PHI), the HIPAA Security Rule requires participation in HIPAA Security Awareness training to learn the basic procedures necessary to protect that information.

If not already implemented in an organization, employee security awareness training is steadily becoming mandatory for all businesses in all industries.

Importance of a security awareness program

Despite this fact, security awareness training is still ignored by many organizations. If there’s a common thread the experts all agree on, it’s that poor training and unaware employees lie at the root of many if not most breaches.

So, how do you make sure that your organization’s critical information is protected? The first (and best) line of defense is having a formal Employee Security Awareness Training Program in place. The more they understand about how behaviors and habits affect your company’s security posture, the better off the company will be.

Information Security Awareness Programs are intended to make employees and customers aware of risks to their personal and institutional information and IT environment, and empower them with the skills and knowledge they need to avoid those risks.

Centre Technologies' Employee Security Awareness Training program is included in our Managed IT Services for small businesses plan and gives your employees the tools and information they need to make security second nature. Find out how this valuable resource can help protect your hard-earned reputation and ensure that your employees are part of the solution — and not part of the problem.