All of the most advanced, high-tech cybersecurity tools in the world won't protect your business from data breaches if your employees aren't well-informed about best practices for data protection. Errors are part of the cause of 21 percent of data breaches, according to Verizon's 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report.
Hackers commonly employ tactics like phishing and other social engineering strategies to get company employees to open the door to sensitive data. That's why ongoing awareness training is perhaps the most important security solution of all.
Steps Every Business Should Take to Improve Security Awareness
It's vital to take proactive steps to ensure your end users make the right choices to minimize your company's risk of experiencing a costly data breach. Here are just a few actions you can take to put your organization on the right path toward optimal security levels:
- Identify standard cybersecurity practices and policies: This can include guidelines for the following:
- Instructions for setting strong passwords and routinely changing passwords
- Remote access policies for off-site workers who need to securely retrieve company data (e.g., by using a VPN)
- Backup, disaster recovery and business continuity processes
- On-boarding and off-boarding procedures to ensure new team members know about company security standards and make sure former employees don't still have access to sensitive information
- Ensure leadership buy-in: Your company's executives should all understand the importance of proactive security efforts and routine awareness training. IT security should ideally have its own budget, separate from general IT funds.
- Establish recurring training/awareness programs carried out by your IT or HR departments: With new types of malware emerging daily, it's crucial to make security awareness an ongoing initiative to keep up with constantly evolving threats.
Get Expert Guidance From Stratosphere's Certified Security Analysts
Our team of security experts have experience with employee security training and can ensure your team is up to speed on best practices quickly and effectively. Let our analysts guide your organization through the above steps.
Test Your Team's Abilities With Our Spoof Phishing Solution
Additionally, we can leverage our comprehensive security awareness training platform to carry out fully automated simulated phishing attacks – a.k.a. spoof phishing – to test your team members' threat identification skills. Our solution will collect data about who fell for and clicked on the phony links and then supply additional online security awareness training for those individuals. Overall, this advanced platform allows us to work with your organization to develop better processes and policies to drive security awareness.
Take the first step toward better security awareness today by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com.