If you have a growing business, the biggest cyber security threat to you might just be your own team.
That’s not to say that they’re all out secretly trying to hack your system. It’s more that honest employee mistakes and negligence are responsible for around half of all data security breaches.
More and more organisations of every size are becoming aware of the reasons why cyber security training and awareness is something all of their people need:
Cyber security training – the benefits
1) Turn your team into a shield not a weakness
For hackers and other bad actors out there, employees with poor cyber security practices make for the best targets.
If your team doesn’t know what a phishing email looks like or how to take proper care of their mobile devices or how important it is to use strong passwords, they are easy holes for anyone who wants to get into your system to exploit.
With proper training, your team will be an additional layer of defence rather – flagging problems and taking proper care. Instead of a whole bunch of walking disasters waiting to happen.
2) Get more buy-in from your team
The proverbial weak link in most cyber security set-ups, an untrained team member is likely to be unaware of how easy it would be for them to cause a major breach. They’re also likely to be less concerned than they should be that it could happen to them.
On the other hand, a team member that has cyber awareness training is fully aware of what could go wrong. The dangers are highlighted and they also know the relatively simple steps they need to take to prevent and catch any problems.
Because they have the knowledge, they become more engaged. Because they’re more aware, they stay on top of things rather than letting them slide through inattention.
3) Let your cyber specialists focus their efforts
Just imagine how much time your IT team could save if they didn’t have to be mopping up after basic errors all of the time.
Whether you have an in-house team or you use a modern managed service, you want your cyber specialists to be spending their time on the important issues that only they have the skills and knowledge to handle. Anything else is a waste of your resources.
4) Safeguard your data and assets
Organisation-wide training ensures that IT in every part of your business is being operated by people who know what they are doing when it comes to cyber threats.
Not only is protecting your own data and that of your clients a vital concern for any modern business, but the downtime after an attack can potentially be at least as much of a problem as lost data.
Smart business owners in every sector have come to realise that proper planning and preparation now are what is needed to prevent incredibly costly breaches, data loss and downtime later. Especially when a key part of the solution is as simple as effective training for their team.
5) Become industry-standard compliant
Organisation staff training is often a key box to tick in important national and industry-standard cyber security compliance schemes such as the government-supported Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus scheme.
Most large organisations in the UK will require their partners to have some kind of cyber compliance certification in place before they’re willing to do business. If you’re planning on trying to get work from the UK government, Cyber Essentials is a requirement.
In short, cyber security awareness training isn’t just good for protecting what you and your business already have now. It’s the best way to keep growing in future too.
Wondering just how simple cyber awareness training could be?
Dial A Geek already helps nearly 1000 businesses around Bristol protect themselves.
Book a commitment-free consultation with Chief Geek Gildas Jones today via his booking calendar. Learn how we can train your team to be your first line of defence against cyber attack.
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