Importance of Providing Cybersecurity Awareness Training for All Your Employees and Staff at Corporate Level Especially During Pandemic

February 8, 2021

Creating a human firewall within your organization to keep your employees & staff aware of modern cyber threats and how to combat them is critical in the current environment. The cybersecurity segment is constantly evolving, and so are the cyber attackers; who are using artificial intelligence to penetrate systems by taking advantage of human errors or weak networks. 95% of the cyber-attacks are successful because of careless or ignorant employees. If the staff and employees are provided corporate cybersecurity training on a timely basis, they will know the best practices and guidelines that can prevent most attacks.

Cyber attackers use phishing, social engineering, ransomware, and malware as their basic weapons to target the weak links and unprotected employee accounts to access critical business information. Organizations using a weak layer of security are an easy target for hackers and attackers to breach their network. Due to lack of guidance, unawareness of modern cyberthreat prevention tactics, and absence of continuity in cybersecurity staff &employee training, your network security controls can become meaningless!

WHY is cybersecurity employees awareness training important for the corporate staff in every organization?

The current IT infrastructure is constantly evolving, and cybercriminals are using artificial intelligence to manipulate and breach networks. Organizations need to train their employees and staff so that they can avoid social engineering and understand the fundamentals of combat with modern threats.

Starting with understanding the risks involved with using business equipment like computers, laptops, mobile phones, and business software applications; your staff will learn how to deal with patient/customer details, business sensitive data, and how to protect your confidential information.

There are many guidelines, policies, procedures, and standards defined in the IT and Cybersecurity standards and compliances like HIPAA, PIPEDA, SOCII, PCI-DSS, etc. Even while using basic communication channels like email, chats, file-sharing systems, etc., there are best practices to help your organization to avoid malware, phishing, and trojan attacks.

WHAT will they learn and understand in the cybersecurity training for corporate staff and employees?

Surprisingly, there are organizations that do not even have basic email security. In addition, many companies are not aware of and have little understanding of what happens during different cyberattacks.

What is trojan or malware? How cyber attackers use ransomware? During the current pandemic most of employees are working from home using VPN with limited layers of security. During the training, they will learn how cyber attackers are viewing this as an opportunity.

They will learn how company sensitive information can be hacked due to the negligence of employees or third-party vendors. Most importantly, employees will learn the preventive steps to avoid the attack before it even starts. Here is an overview of subjects covered in the cybersecurity awareness training:

Understanding the forms of cyberattacks or cyberthreats: If in case the business is under attack, it is important to first identify the type of attack and then use the right prevention method to block it from spreading further. To understand what kind of cyberattacks is it, employees need to be trained on social engineering, phishing, malware, spam, viruses, ransomware, identify theft, and many other variances of these threats.

Understanding how password security can allow unauthorized access: Employees typically believe that using the same type of password or the same password for all portals is desirable as it is user-friendly. However, accessing passwords can be the first line of attack used by cybercriminals to hack the valuable information of your company. Topics like effective password combinations, how frequently employees should change those passwords, why Multi Factor Authentication is more effective; and other subjects are covered in the cybersecurity awareness training program.

Understanding the risk of carrying spyware in IT assets: For cyber attacker’s, employees of a company are the prime target, and they use every possible way to obtain crucial information or penetrate the business network. The most common and easiest “game” for cybercrime attackers is to entice employees to download free software, applications, or to click on a link that downloads spyware on their devices. This spyware has been designed to perform various functions such as send messages, steal data, or listen to all communications. How to identify such spyware, remove it from devices, and prevent it in the future is covered in our training.

Understanding the communication channels: Email remains the preferred platform for cybercriminals to attack corporate staff. Regardless of your position, the moment you access an unsecured link, attachment, or email, your information is compromised. If you are accessing emails, chat tools, social media, or third-party webinar tools; then you must ensure that all standard protocols, guidelines, and procedures are followed. Details of policies, procedures, and standards of compliance are explained in the cybersecurity training.

HOW will cybersecurity employees awareness training be beneficial for your organization?

The primary objective of cybersecurity awareness training is to highlight the Do’s and Don’ts based on the IT guidelines and rules defined in your industry-specific compliance. Ensuring that every employee is following the cybersecurity training, protocols, and is constantly updated; will make your organization's IT network much stronger, keep information safe, and help reduce cyberattacks.

Companies following all the latest compliance can also assure their clients that their information is secure and that they can trust your team. You can highlight the IT risk assessment certifications, compliance certifications, and expertise of your cybersecurity consulting team to your clients to win their confidence and new projects.

Security defense is not created in a day or month, it is created continuously. On-goings training and following the best practices will give your staff and employees the ability and sense of responsibility to protect the business, clients, and confidential information.

Cyberthreats are like mutating viruses which keep changing. The forms of the attacks are becoming more sophisticated with changing technology and businesses need to ensure that they are also keeping themselves updated and learn to combat these attacks with the right tools from an expert team.

WHERE can you get cybersecurity training?

Cyberwall is one of the leading cybersecurity awareness training providers for companies across Canada and the United States. We have a team of highly experienced and certified cybersecurity professionals who know the insights of current cybersecurity threats. We provide in-house and/ or online employee training for organizations.


For more information regarding our cybersecurity awareness training, contact us at: info@cyberwall.ca