Cybersecurity is one of the main topics in the past years, a security awareness training importance grows every year more and more. It is mostly due to the higher percentage of online threats and attacks (like ransomware, phishing, and botnets) that are happening on a global level. What’s more interesting is that currently, hackers and criminal organizations are focusing more on hacking smaller companies instead of the giants like Google or Facebook (but they are not excluded). It is because smaller companies usually don’t invest in the protection of their data and are not aware of Internet threats, so it’s crucial to pass security awareness training.
What are the most common Internet threats?
Phishing
One of the most common online threats is phishing. Phishing is when a hacker tries to lure you into opening some link from either an email, or a chat message, for example, that does not lead to the website that should, but instead, it could lead you to a malicious website that can install malware on your PC or phone, which can be used for stealing or deleting your data.
Ransomware
Another of the most common online threats is ransomware, a malware that once it’s installed on your PC, it encrypts (locks) your data and prompt you with a message that you need to pay a ransom in order to retrieve your data back, but of course, even you pay the ransom, nobody guarantee that you will actually get your data back.
All these threats are happening every day and anyone can be a victim, even an IT professional can be a victim, but it is usually an employee who is not familiar with IT technology, somebody who is using the Internet only for personal entertainment for example, or only for social media (these people are sometimes referred an average users
But what can a company do to prevent this kind of threat?
Well, one of the first steps is to educate its employees, by organizing security awareness training. A security awareness training is an educational program (or a course) whose goal is to educate people about common Internet threats and attacks, so they could recognize one if they ever come across it. There are many variations of security awareness training, but the most common things they teach you about are usually common threats like phishing and social engineering, password security, data classification, physical security, and similar. After this training, people are ready to browse the Internet and send emails more safely, they will have the knowledge to recognize a fake (spam) email and Internet threats, they will understand the importance of creating a strong and unique password and also what they can do to protect themselves and the others.
Security awareness training importance
It is important to mention that the purpose of this training is not to teach how to use any specific software tool or to teach you computer programming, or even how to become a cybersecurity expert, but to give you the knowledge for a better understanding of the Internet threats and how to prevent or avoid them. Remember, taking basic steps toward securing yourself from Internet threats, will not protect only you, but the people around you, too.
Contact ITAF for a free quote.
Learn more about ITAF approach to security awareness training.
