Cyber Security Training For Employees

Cyberspace can be visualised as an electronic nervous system running through many national, international sectors and systems and it is not going away. Digital technology has already significantly rocked some industries like the publishing industry. 

Publishing has been completely changed by digital technology and has allowed readers a far faster electronic engagement with issues, news and analysis and of course, a lot of fake news via social media. As with all revolutions Cyber has a criminal down side both on the Dark Web and on the normal web and this needs our attention.

Recently it has become very apparent that all employees, from senior management to part-timers, are the largest cyber security vulnerability that any organisation faces. 

The Covid-19 global pandemic forcing millions of office workers to become remote workers has created a ‘perfect tsunami’ for cyber criminals seeking to exploit the crisis and penetrate corporate defences via unsecured home networks. 

Businesses investing heavily in cyber security often base their investments on technology, but don’t sufficiently attend to the human side of the problem.  This is a very important issue as threats like phishing emails are now often successfully used by hackers to steal data, finance and commercial information from organisations and now this requires cyber security training and engagement for all employees.

This means that organisations need to spend more time and thought creating a more sophisticated cyber security culture and behaviour change within their organisation and cyber training is a very important part of this process.

Despite the fact that some organisations has a partial focus on developing cyber security awareness, few individuals actually understand their role in the organisation’s security culture. But when standard security training often means a bland instructional video or a boring PowerPoint presentation, we can’t really blame employees for a lack of awareness. 

Effective cyber security training is difficult to do well. Security awareness training for end users is often too broad and sporadic to cultivate real needed skills for safe operation on networks. 

Often the responsibility for cyber security dwells in IT, whereas responsibility for training resides in Human Resources. Typically, IT specialists lack responsibility for and proficiency in training. HR professionals are uniquely positioned to understand the role of trained employees in cyber risk mitigation and to mediate solutions for an organisation’s cyber security challenges.  However, they often do not have expertise in cyber security and they may even lack any specific technical expertise in cyber defense. 

Each aspect of the organisation knows part of the solution but none knows the whole solution and the result is disjointed and dysfunctional education and training. Nevertheless, we have found cyber security training videos and engagement of employees that works that is created by companies like GoCyber. 

Security training needs to be more than a mere annual necessity. It needs to be an interactive and engaging experience that will solidify their role in the security posture of the organisation.

Cyber Security Intelligence's Cyber Training Reports, are aimed at helping the management of organisations to review and comprehend the changing Cyber issues and how to deal with their cyber security training requirements that your organisation needs. These issues need to be understood and used by senior management for strategic and tactical planning by all aspects of your organisation. 

One of the major issues that has become increasingly obvious is the need to focus on is the need for real time cyber training. 

Cyber security training needs to take place within all organisations in order to significantly reduce the chances and risks of criminal success that are using cyber attacks and hacking methods to steal your data, money, company secrets and login information. 

Right now, cyber criminals are after identity resources such as social security numbers, credit card information and login credentials. These can be used to impersonate or steal directly from the organisation and cyber attacks are being used to steal, monitor and influence most organisations via their management and employees.    

Cyber Attacks & Fraud

Cyber attacks have cost US businesses over $650 billion in 2019 and UK businesses have lost almost $40 billion in the past 12 months due to cyber security attacks, hacks and related security incidents. British insurers have  found 55% of business had faced an attack in 2019 which is an increase from 40% in 2018. Currently almost 75% of firms are ranked as early starters in terms of cyber readiness. 

Most Directors and Boards are often ignorant to the dangers of hackers as they rely and trust the confident in their IT Department’s ability to keep their organisations safe. 

• Often to stay safe within the organisations belief protocol IT managers can feel under pressure to minimise or even hide their organizations' systems weaknesses as they are often under pressure to reduce costs. 

• Almost two thirds of all organisations have no board member tasked specifically to tackle cyber threats and these organisations have not had a cyber security audits completed on their organisation’s IT systems and personnel.

Training is also an issue with the whole organisation, despite the fact that employee education is the best way to tackle these types of threats. 

Only around 27% of organisations have trained their employees in the last 12 months and this should be done on a frequent basis that doesn’t take up much of their time but keeps them on the cyber moment as the technology and the methods of attack change and become more sophisticated. 

For instance, currently Londoners are losing an average of £26 million a month in cyber-attacks on businesses and individuals, Scotland Yard has warned. Thousands of cyber fraud are recorded in the capital each month, with phishing emails, ransomware and malware the most common scams.  Senior London Police officers have  warned fraudsters often target individual employees to bypass company security systems.

Analysis suggest that about 73 per cent of frauds are carried out online, with many criminals based overseas, making it difficult for police in the UK to pursue a case. 

When it comes to cyber crime, access to your information is their power. Access to your personal information is what gives hackers the power to tap into your accounts and steal your money or your identity. 

Everyone from governments, commercial organisations and you as individuals all need new understanding, strategies and specific tactics using Cyber’s outlook and potential.  This requires a change in perspective, continued research and changes to working methods employing the relevant technology that projects into the new interconnected global future.

It is very important that senior management in all areas of business and commerce, police forces, the military and all other aspects of government create and continually review an electronic cyber training strategy.  This will help to ensure that continually up-dated and educated employees from senior management to trainees use of cyber and IT tactics within the organisation and also when they are working on personal computers away and outside the organisation’s offices. 

Directors and management should use training reports to track and summarise the key take-aways from training programs. This report will review some training program and focus on training sessions they have already used.  Business leaders will be able to use the new CSI Report to evaluate what is working and what isn't and to develop recommendations for change. 

Training Report

Cyber Security Intelligence's new Cyber Security Intelligence Report, will evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the current types of cyber training programs and the problems surrounding the current cyber-attacks and hacks.  We start by defining the training programs and move to recommending ways to improve cyber security and training. We will review the best duration times of the training, and review different training programs.

Background and Objectives: The Report will discuss the training program background and objectives and how information for the report was gathered. Reports might include feedback from trainers and attendee reviews or surveys. Define why the training occurred and what leadership sought to accomplish by appropriating resources for the program. 

Training Methods and Activities:  The Report will include an explanation for how the training was conducted and describe the presentation content as well as participant workshop exercises along with the duration of each. 

Key Findings and Recommendations: The final section will highlight the key conclusions. It will review some key feedback in surveys and discuss potential implications to the organisation considering new training based on the Report findings. 

For a cost-effective  briefing Report on your organisation’s cyber security and training needs  please Contact Cyber Security Intelligence and we will recommend the right cyber training provider and cyber audit process for your organisation. 
 

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