Tips to Train Your Employees on Cybersecurity
During the pandemic, millions of employees working in different companies across the globe shifted to work from home models. However, this makes it tough for the companies to protect their applications and data. Although this model means greater flexibility there is a blur between leisure time and office work with staff members juggling between personal stuff and work-related apps. The advent of online shopping platforms and social media has raised the potential for cyber-attacks. Most HR and IT training teams are focused on helping the staff members control the vast number of incoming cyber-attacks. Here are some tips to educate employees about cyber security.
1. Communicate the effects of the cyber security breach to the employees:
The best method for attracting the attention of your employees is by explaining the consequences of security incidents on the organization. Some of them include fines, financial losses, and reduced customer faith. You need to walk them through the consequences if a staff member leaves their laptop on the bus, or accesses significant documents by using the free public Wi-Fi. Another potential danger is using the work device for accessing personal emails. You will find that many employees are not aware of these dangers, especially about the fact that you are facing them every day.
2. Improvement in cyber security messages:
The first step for providing effective cyber security education to the employees is the use of proper messages. In almost all the cases, the IT team uses some incomprehensible terminology that the normal employees struggle to understand. The messages need to be easily understandable, relatable, and diversified. You need to avoid the use of tech jargon that may bring about more confusion than serving the purpose. You can hold events within the company to teach the employees cyber security measures. If necessary, use interpreting booths for these events for a diverse multilingual workforce. The language used in the messages must be relatable. For example, while discussing the external threats, make them more about PCs rather than about the central network. Employees can easily relate to the dangers when it is relatable with their laptops and mobile phones.
3. Make the employees aware of the different kinds of cyber security threats:
To get the employees to spot and prevent any breaches they need to have a fundamental knowledge of the usual cyber security problems and how to prevent these incidences. You must educate them about malware, spam, phishing, ransomware, and social engineering, Make a beginning with spam. It is the most common cyber security threat. Educate them about the ways to identify the spam content on social media messages and emails. During training, you need to highlight the tips for preventing ransomware, malware, and social engineering. Provide them with insights about spotting malicious activities happening on their devices. For instance, new apps or programs suddenly appear on the devices. Or the device has slowed down to a great extent without a reason.
4. Have cyber security training as a part of the onboarding process and also a continuous conversation:
First impressions are significant many times during the hiring process and cyber security is no exception. In case you have not included it in the onboarding process, you must include it in the training process. You need to explain the company rules and better practices to the employees. And how it is necessary for maintaining the integrity of the data. Apart from this, you must provide ongoing training to the employees about cyber security. you can use different approaches for this such as announcements and newsletter updates. Make these updates eye-catching with colourful infographics rather than usual listings. You can use these methods even if you’re holding remote team meetings and it will have the same effect. Make sure that your updates are following the KISS rule; Meaning “Keep It Short and Simple”. This makes things easier for the employees to retain these updates after a hectic day.
Conclusion
When you utilize effective cyber security education for your employees, it also means that they appreciate the significance of treading safely on the web. This is especially true for the company devices or work networks. Having a comprehensive knowledge of cyber security is the first line of defence against malicious attempts coming from outside. Although the network firewalls can prevent hackers from accessing company data, the apps used by different employees make them vulnerable to attacks.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blog Feed authored by Blog Feed. Read the original post at: https://www.globalsign.com/en/blog/tips-train-your-employees-cybersecurity