6 Tips on How to Train Your Employees for Cybersecurity

Data and security breaches are increasing with time. Even small businesses are not safe from these attacks. Every business is working on protecting their business from these attacks. You should look for the best security controls that can protect your business. However, most attacks will actually target your employees.

There are various resources available in the market for protecting your digital assets. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in protecting your assets. However, you still need to train your employees as hackers are shifting to tactics like spear-phishing. The attack landscape is constantly evolving with time. In this article, we are going to some tips that will help you in training your employees.

1. Never blame your employees

Most people think that massive data breaches only happen due to some hapless employee. However, this is not true. You might blame your employees for not knowing about the best cybersecurity practices. But, it is your responsibility to ensure that your employees are keeping their data secure.

It is your organization’s duty to teach your employees. This will ensure that your employees can make the best decisions. You should set up a new infrastructure where your employees can report threats. This will ensure that your IT team can quickly work on stopping these threats.

2. Invest money in training your employees

Cybersecurity is never going to be a one-time investment. You need to constantly train your employees about the new threats. The threat landscape is going to constantly evolve with time. Thus, you can’t rely on annual cybersecurity training only. For example, if you are only updating your devices after a year, then you can’t protect your business from attacks. This is also applicable to employee training.

Your employees are your biggest asset and you need to train them constantly. You can try various different approaches to training your employees. However, you should never think that your employees as a point of failure. Your employees can become your greatest asset if they are well trained. They can stop most of the attacks if they know about the best cybersecurity practices.

3. Prioritize Cybersecurity awareness

Most of the data breach attacks don’t get any media coverage. Thus, most companies forget about them. According to a report from Ponemon Institute, more than 2/3th of SMBs have been attacked in the last 12 months.

You can share the cybersecurity news with your employees and the team. The frequency and volume of these attacks should be shared with your employees. This will ensure that your employees are prioritizing cybersecurity.

However, you should never spam your employee’s inboxes. You can add a cybersecurity news section in your reports or emails. This will ensure that your employees know about the consequences of cyberattacks.

4. Password Security Training

You should include password training in your security plan. If your employees are using simple passwords, then attackers can easily guess these passwords. A strong password should have these features:

• Your password should be long enough as these passwords are very hard to brute-force. Attackers need to run their machines for millions of years for cracking these passwords. Thus, you should ensure that your password is at least 10 characters long.
• Your password should include multiple character sets like numerals, lowercase, symbols, and uppercase.
• Your password should never contain complete words like some names. These words are already stored in the dictionary and attackers can use brute-force attacks for guessing your password.
• Your employees should regularly update their passwords. You should set up a remainder which will ensure that your employees will update their password.

The best way to manage your employee’s password is by using enterprise password managers. These tools will help you in generating strong passwords. Your employees can use these passwords for protecting their accounts. These tools will ensure that your employees can share passwords with their team members. This will help your remote teams in collaborating with each other.

5. Teach your employees about social engineering and phishing attacks

Attackers mostly use social engineering and phishing attacks for attacking your employees. They can spoof domains and email addresses for targeting your employees. Attackers can even use attacks like man-in-the-middle attacks for cracking the protected accounts.

However, you can’t blame your employees for these attacks. Your organization should work on training your employees about these attacks. Make sure that your employees can identify a phishing email.

If they are making some unexpected requests, then your employees should check the email address first. They should also check the email format and try to verify it. If someone is asking for your login details, then they should make a phone call and verify the email.

Your employees should know about social engineering attacks. Attackers can directly email or call your organization. They will act as a vendor and try to steal your data. However, your employees can use common sense for breaking these attacks.

6. Conduct Practice Attacks

You should also conduct practice attacks for testing your employee knowledge. These attacks will ensure that your employees can test their new skills. Your employees can’t learn about the best security habits without learning from their mistakes first.

Your own IT security team can conduct this test or you can also hire a third-party. This test will help you in testing your security level. It is going to be similar to a fire drill. Your employees will learn from their mistakes. This will ensure that your employees won’t make the same mistakes during a real attack.

Conclusion

The number of security and data breaches is increasing with time. Thus, you should take the best steps for protecting your business data. You should ensure that your employees know about the best cybersecurity practices. This will help you in protecting your business from phishing and social engineering attacks. You should also conduct tests for checking your preparation. If you don’t have access to a good in-house IT team, then you can work with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in implementing the best security controls. They will also help you in training your employees. If you need more information regarding IT security services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.