Cybersecurity is a term used to describe the protection of a business from online threats. These threats can come in many forms, from data breaches to ransomware. Cybersecurity affects all businesses. However, the push for businesses to move more toward online operations has been steadily increasing over the last few years. The more internet-based businesses become, the more important it becomes for them to have proper cybersecurity.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that a significant number of data breaches and information leaks come from simple human error. That’s why cybersecurity training for employees is so important. By properly teaching your employees the basics of cybersecurity, you can drastically decrease the chances of someone inadvertently opening up your business to the risk of a cyber attack.
Hackers are constantly evolving their methods to keep up with the newest technology and creating new ways to carry out their malicious intent. Because of this, employees should be consistently trained on how to avoid falling for the most common current cybersecurity threats. Nobody can be 100% safe from cybersecurity threats, but making sure your employees and leadership teams know what to look out for can definitely help. Some common ways hackers infiltrate is via email, posing as company leadership.
Online cybersecurity awareness training for employees is vital, and it can be the difference between preventing risk and obtaining minor impacts and having your company be significantly impacted. When it comes to cybersecurity awareness training, 2022 is one of the most threat-ridden years in recent history, meaning it’s more important now than ever to provide your employees with proper cybersecurity training.
Since it’s so important to provide your employees with said cybersecurity awareness training, it may be a good idea to look into cybersecurity training companies like Trava. Trava has been in the business for years, and by trusting your employee training to the professionals you can rest easy knowing that they’re in good hands.
Another example of professional cybersecurity training for your employees that you can get from professionals is Amazon cybersecurity training. Amazon’s cybersecurity training enables you with a way to run your business online with a secure cloud computing system. They also teach your employees how to identify and, therefore, avoid the most common cybersecurity threats.
Questions?
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Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Every business is unique, so every business’s security needs will be different. Therefore, the cybersecurity training you provide your employees should be custom-tailored to your organization. That being said, any good cybersecurity training courses should at least include the same basic information. For example, one of the most important cybersecurity awareness training topics to cover is the different kinds of risks and security relevant to your business. Here are two examples:
Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks are one of the most common types of security risks. Phishing attacks occur when an attacker sends false messages (usually in the form of an email) pretending to be someone else (usually someone from a position of authority) in order to trick a victim into revealing critical information.
Phishing simulators can be of service when training your employees. These simulators deploy emails requesting important information. Then the simulations grade your employees’ interactions with the email.
Password Security
One easy way that you and your employees can protect against hackers is to make sure that everyone within the organization has secure passwords. A good topic to include in your cybersecurity awareness training is what would and wouldn’t be a good password. Easy-to-guess passwords make it nearly effortless for ill-wishers to hack your company.
The importance of cybersecurity awareness training for employees cannot be stressed enough. As previously mentioned, security awareness training companies can help your employees stay up-to-date on how to identify potential cyber-attacks, avoid falling for them, and minimize damage caused in the event that an attack does take place.
There are several tools that help save passwords and can keep your team safe. Training your employees to never write down passwords even if they think it is being stored in a safe place.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training For Employees
When looking for a company to provide cybersecurity awareness training for employees of your business, you have to do your research and find the one that’s best for you. There is no definitive answer as to which company is hands-down the best for everyone. That being said, it can be tough to find a place to start looking.
Making yourself aware of the current top security awareness training companies is a great first step. While they may not all be the right fit for you, they’re popular for a reason. Chances are that at least one of them will be a good fit. Remember, though, that the best cybersecurity training for employees within your organization will be provided with them in mind.
When you’re looking for a new cybersecurity awareness training program or company, it’s always a good idea to read reviews left by previous users. Rather than going to the website for each individual company, there are websites like Gartner security awareness training where you can access one centralized network for the reviews of different programs.
According to Gartner’s review system, some of the most popular cybersecurity training companies for employees include KnowBe4, ProofPoint, and Infosec. KnowBe4 specifically seems to have the most customer-preferred courses available. But what do these training programs cost?
While the price ranges vary, cybersecurity awareness training programs for employees don’t tend to cost much. When it comes down to it, enlisting the help of companies that provide cybersecurity awareness training for employees costs much less than it would to recover from having your organization become the victim of a cyber attack.
That being said, the general price of providing cybersecurity awareness training for your employees will be somewhere around $10-$60 per employee. However, there are some resources online that you can access for free.
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Free Cybersecurity Training For Employees
As previously mentioned, the price of paying for employees to be properly educated about the security risks that they may encounter is minuscule compared to the financial impact of having a hole in your business’s security exploited by a hacker. That being said, there are also some pretty good resources available online that provide free cybersecurity awareness training for employees, to an extent.
One example of said resources is free security awareness training videos. These can be found on a variety of different websites and software providers, which also usually offer other types of free cybersecurity awareness training materials. However, you should be aware that not all of the free online cybersecurity training for employees will necessarily be of the highest quality, so it is still important to check the reviews from past users.
Since providing proper cybersecurity training for your employees is so vital, it may be a good idea to use these cybersecurity awareness training free resources as an accompaniment to professional training courses, rather than as your main resource.
A few examples of places that you can find free online resources for cybersecurity training include Usecure and Coursera. The majority of non-free providers of online cybersecurity training courses for employees do provide free trials and/or free cybersecurity risk assessments. At the very least this can help you get a feel for which options you like best.
Government Funded Cybersecurity Courses
In addition to these free online cybersecurity training courses and paid cybersecurity training courses, there is a third option. This third option is primarily for government entities and military branches- government-funded cybersecurity courses.
One of the main terms you may hear regarding this is FedVTE or Federal Virtual Training Environment. The Federal Virtual Training Environment is an on-demand, online virtual training course intended to enable veterans and government employees to learn about cybersecurity practices.
However, that’s not the only cybersecurity training option that the government funds. For example, most United States military members have at least some form of cybersecurity training to prevent them from accidentally leaking confidential information (like their troop’s location).
To expand on the topic of government-funded military cybersecurity awareness training, army recruits will often be encouraged to attend the army’s direct commission cybersecurity course (which typically takes around six weeks to complete).
Federal personnel, especially those within the FBI and CIA have extensive training on cybersecurity. You may be intrigued to know that Trava was founded by a former FBI cyber crimes task force officer. This officer then decided to use the skills they gained throughout their career to create a company that would enable small and medium-sized businesses to protect themselves from potential cyber attacks and understand what to do if they do become victims.