Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Employees

Going to Xcidic to recognise common cyber threats can be beneficial to your organisation’s security. Security awareness training teaches employees to understand vulnerabilities and threats to business operations and equips their workforce with the knowledge and skills to boost their cyber defences.

In this blog, we are going to talk about the importance of training your employees about cybersecurity!

What is Cybersecurity Awareness Training?

Cybersecurity training is designed to give your information technology users a fresh perspective on potential threats. Employees generally learn key skills during cybersecurity awareness training including:

• How to identify the vulnerabilities in organisations
• Best practices for improved security and how to implement them
• Safe use of web services and communication tools such as email, instant messaging, and more

We recommend this training for every member of your cybersecurity team, and as many employees as possible to maintain a high level of security awareness and cybersecurity management all around the company.

Its Significance for Business

Increased security is the obvious reason why all businesses, big or small, should have employees of all levels learn the importance of protecting themselves and their company from "human exploits" and cyber attacks. More than that, a single cyber attack could cost your business thousands or millions of dollars and damage your reputation.

Costs Businesses Money, Time, and Clients’ Trust

Criminals will extort your business for money after they steal your data. There are indirect costs as well:

• Downtime while the attack is identified and damages repaired.
• Higher insurance costs due to increased risk.
• Loss of customer trust damages revenue.

These are the main costs of a breach. Cybersecurity awareness training reduces the risks to your business by equipping your staff with the tools and security testing knowledge they need to guard against attacks.

Compliance with Regulation

All businesses have some requirements to keep customer data safe. They also have an interest in protecting their data, proprietary information, and internal communications. However, many businesses also face government regulations about cybersecurity. 

For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires healthcare organisations to employ safeguards to protect patient data. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also issued a voluntary Cybersecurity Framework offering a risk-based approach to cybersecurity.

These regulations are constantly growing and nearly all of them include some form of employee cybersecurity awareness training as well so that the workforce can uphold the cybersecurity standards within their organisation.

Benefits of Cybersecurity-Aware Employees

Training your employees and yourself on cybersecurity-related safety and best practices will create a sense of empowerment, not only in the office but remotely. You can rest assured that your workforce will be confident in the decisions they make when creating new passwords, filtering through suspicious emails or browsing the internet.

Cybersecurity awareness training will immediately increase your employees' awareness levels and give them the practical skills needed to better protect your business from the dangers of data breaches, network attacks and ransomware threats.

With the correct education and support, each user can be an important part of your defensive network. Specific benefits from the training include:

• Less demand on your IT staff for support with cybersecurity issues.
• Increased organisational resistance to attacks that mimic peer-to-peer communication.
• Completed training can be advertised where appropriate as a competitive advantage.

Are there any disadvantages to training? None. The first attack your company avoids will repay all the costs and time you’ve invested in your team, as well as developing your employees as cybersecurity specialists.

In Conclusion

Bolstering your company’s cybersecurity defences doesn’t just come from the technologies but also from how your employees can protect themselves and the company’s data from being snatched by cyber attacks.

Xcidic prioritises cybersecurity more than anything else. We truly believe that with our expert cybersecurity team and the latest technology stack, we can protect your businesses from any potential cyber threats. Interested? Visit our website and let’s begin your cybersecurity journey!