Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM) is a good time to consider how businesses may strengthen their defences and educate their staff on cyber security best practices in the face of an increasingly complicated cyber threat scenario.
Security knowledge is one of the most crucial things to work on. During CSAM, Terranova Security announced the 2021 Gone Phishing Tournament and proceeded to send one million phishing emails to conference attendees.
revealed that almost 20% of people who received the phishing email clicked the link. Employees at several companies showed a lack of security understanding. Because of this, all departments in the company are in danger since employees may engage in reckless actions like visiting harmful websites or opening unknown files.
In this article, we’ll look at how CSAM may help persuade staff to make safer decisions, why it’s so important, and how businesses can utilize it to strengthen their security.
Explain Cyber Security Education and Awareness Month
The National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) coordinate an annual global campaign known as Cyber Security Awareness Month.
This conference will teach businesses and government agencies how to better promote a culture of security. It’s a great chance for businesses to rethink their strategies for cyber security training, institute necessary cultural shifts, and guarantee that their staff will fully embrace security best practices.
This year’s conference will focus on the following themes:
- allowing for many methods of authentication
- Having secure passphrases
- Using a password storage system
- software upgrades, and
- Knowing how to identify and report phishing attacks
Following the hashtags #BeCyberSmart and #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth across all social media platforms will keep you abreast of any additional announcements made in connection with the event.
Why is the month of cybersecurity awareness important?
The amount of security awareness amongst a company’s staff is a major factor in determining the success of various cyberattacks, which is why October has been designated as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Human error, social engineering, and malicious intent are all factors in 82% of breaches, according to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report.
A threat actor only needs one employee to fall for a phishing email and click on a malicious link or attachment for them to get access to your environment. Employee accounts are just as vulnerable to compromise if staff members don’t choose secure passwords and repeatedly use the same credentials across many services.
Employees are less likely to engage in risky behaviours that put confidential information at risk if they are educated on essential security awareness themes. Training in security awareness might be reinforced to:
- Reduce the likelihood of employees falling for phishing email scams by clicking on links or attachments.
- Reduce the risk of credential theft by instructing workers on how to choose secure passwords.
- Multi-factor authentication can increase the security of your online accounts.
- Staff members should be urged to ensure that all their personal devices have the most recent security patches installed.
Tips for Making the Most of Cybersecurity Month
If you want to make the most of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, consider the following five steps:
1. Stress the importance of cybersecurity.
Make use of company-wide methods of communication to let staff members know about upcoming cyber security training sessions. Infographics, instructional videos, and blog pieces are just a few examples.
2. Disseminate materials for raising cyber security awareness.
Add some humour and interaction to the classroom with bite-sized training modules. to learn how to help your staff become cyber heroes.
3. Train workers to identify and report cyber dangers through real-world scenarios.
Make real-world experience dealing with cyber risks a central focus of employee training. Phishing simulations are a powerful method for this purpose.
4. Gamify the experience of learning about cyber security.
Make a leader board, award points, or give out prizes to employees who take part in and contribute to CSAM initiatives.
5. Put advocates for cyber security on the inside.
Encourage internal advocates to disseminate excitement and information. They need not be part of your IT or security staff for them to be useful.
Confused about how to begin? Examine the risks of phishing.
The most common form of social engineering is phishing. Employee education should centre on many important topics, but phishing is among the most important. In 2021, according to studies, 83 percent of businesses experienced phishing attacks in which employees were fooled into opening a malicious link or file in an email.
The prevalence of phishing means that raising awareness among employees is an effective way to lessen the risk of credential theft and social engineering attacks.
By providing simulated phishing attacks to workers, you can evaluate how well they can spot malicious messages. They can practice identifying malicious emails in the wild, reducing their risk of falling for a phishing scam or opening a malicious attachment.
Develop a stronger cybersecurity culture.
During Cybersecurity Awareness Month, you can instruct your staff on how to avoid phishing and social engineering attacks, in addition to revaluating your technological security measures.
Though seemingly insignificant individually, these measures can have a major influence on your company’s security and greatly lessen the likelihood of a data breach.
Participating in this month-long event will help your company enforce vital online hygiene and, regardless of current security awareness maturity level, foster an internal attitude where best practices are constantly front-of-mind.
