Your Current Cyber Security Awareness Training Program Isn’t Working

“The human element continues to drive breaches. This year 82% of breaches involved the human element. Whether it is the Use of stolen credentials, Phishing, Misuse, or simply an Error, people continue to play a very large role in incidents and breaches alike.” Source: Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report

Don’t Let your Employees be your Cyber Security Weakness

As business owners, you know that Cyber Security is essential to the well-being of your company. No matter how sophisticated your security systems may be, it’s only as strong as the people using them. Inevitably, human errors are going to be the weak link in any Cyber Security strategy. If you are like most organizations, you run your staff through the annual “Security Awareness Training” regiment feeling good that all the employees passed the yearly training milestone. The problem is, in most cases, it isn’t working! Ransomware incidents are up year after year with the average cost in 2021 being $1.85 million according to a recent Sophos ransomware study. Not surprisingly, Verizon’s recently released data breach investigations report identifies the biggest culprits as being stolen credentials and phishing attacks. This is a clear indicator that the typical annual Security Awareness Training Program for our employees isn’t working! While annual training is a good starting point to reduce your company’s risk, it is not enough to keep your company safe from cyberattacks. The CompliancePoint Cyber Security Team has identified these 3 steps to reduce the risk of a Cyber Security breach or ransomware attack, assist in maturing your Security Awareness Program, and save money on cyber insurance premiums.

1. Transition away from an annual Security Awareness Program to a bi-annual Security Awareness Program focused on interactive role-based training. Bi-annual Cyber Security training sessions will show your employees the importance of this initiative and keep what they have learned fresh in their minds.
2. Implement a quarterly phishing campaign regiment that evaluates and reports on the organizational effectiveness of the employee Security Awareness Training Program. The goal is to ensure 100% employee saturation through the campaigns.
3. Enhance your incident response team’s training by introducing breach and attack simulations as a way for your organization to evaluate the efficacy of its security controls.

Organizations must realize that the longer it takes them to react to a cyber attack, the more money it will ultimately cost. By implementing the measures covered above, you will address a Cyber Security weakness and increase your organization’s ability to respond to a Cyber Security incident swiftly and efficiently.

ComplinacePoint can help your organization improve its ability to respond to an incident with a Breach Readiness Assessment, a Cyber Risk Assessment, Managed Security Services, and penetration testing. Please reach out if you have any questions about cyber security at connect@compliancepoint.com.