The Role of Cyber Awareness in the Workplace

Mitigating threats of a cyber attack is done by properly educating your employees with how to identify a potential attack. Using a Phishing Attack as an example, if you have not implemented an effective training program, potential attacks will continue to exploit weaknesses and run a successful campaign against the organization.

A proper awareness campaign will include a proper insider threat program. This doesn’t mean that employees are purposefully acting as an insider threat but could be an unknowing participant in the targeted campaign. The majority of breaches affecting organizations involve employees who do not have the education needed to thwart these attacks.

There is no silver bullet in preventing these types of attacks. Organizations must implement a multi-layer approach which incorporates technical controls with a properly designed training program. There are many tools that can be incorporated to assist with blocking potential threats, but it must be paired with a tailored training program so employees are aware of the types of threats their organization faces. It will teach them how to identify a threat and what to do in the event that a targeted attack occurs.

These training programs are not a one size fits all, for example, annual training could be split into monthly email modules. Also, they could provide insightful games that help teach what a threat looks like and how to identify it. Until organizations move from a check the box approach to training and move into insightful and comprehensive content, these attacks will continue to occur…