And suddenly, everything changed.
In early 2020, much of the world went into lockdown to minimize the effects of a highly contagious virus. Businesses closed their doors and employees began working from home. Companies had to make rapid and sometimes massive shifts in how they run their operations. Part of this shift involved bringing in new technology while making better use of existing systems. Compounding the stress of many has been the significant increase in cybersecurity breaches. Businesses, governments, and nonprofits are realizing the benefits of cybersecurity training for employees to reduce the number of cyber attacks and minimize their effects.
Cyber attacks on the rise
Recent statistics suggest that cyber attacks have increased from 38% last year to 43% currently. Large corporations are finding themselves to be more of a target. Financial losses can be devastating with one in six businesses reporting that the financial losses from cyber attacks have jeopardized their future.
There are many negative repercussions from these attacks. Financial loss is the obvious one but there are others too. Organizations that have experienced cybersecurity breaches may have allowed vital information to be compromised, received bad publicity, lost the trust of those who deal with them, have had to invest time and money to fix the problem, and may have experienced a loss of employee morale.
While it is extremely important to have an IT team that’s constantly working on these issues, cyber awareness training for employees plays a significant role in reducing security breaches. Employees need to know how to keep the data and equipment they’re entrusted with safe.
How security breaches happen
Employees who don’t work in IT sometimes get distracted by other responsibilities and forget to follow procedures. Some employees don’t know the procedures. Let’s face it: No one wants to be that employee who failed to follow cybersecurity policies and allowed a breach.
Common ways employees inadvertently leave your organization open for attacks are:
- Passwords that are left unprotected, shared, or easy to guess
- Improper downloads
- Opening suspicious emails and following the links
- Failing to follow protocol to keep equipment physically safe
Cybersecurity awareness training for employees
It’s important to have a cybersecurity training plan in place for both existing and new employees. Having engaging content that allows staff to complete their cybersecurity training online is a huge benefit for both the employer and employee.
Different organizations have different needs regarding training their employees to keep information secure. Your business can partner with Dokeos to develop and roll out a highly customized learning management system (LMS) tailored to meet the training needs of your employees. Using the Dokeos platform will allow you to develop a cybersecurity awareness training program from start to finish with engaging content that your employees can access from multiple devices. Following the steps to design a great program will ensure that your cybersecurity training goals are met.
Develop measurable and engaging content
Most employees don’t get too excited about taking yet another compliance course. They often find them boring and tedious and tend to forget a lot of it as soon as they’ve finished it. Designing a program that employees find engaging will encourage them to use it and retain the information.
Since cybersecurity is so important to keep an organization functioning smoothly, you’ll want the material in your online program to be presented in a way that will be memorable to employees. The trainer will also need a way to measure employee engagement and mastery of the subject. These objectives can easily be accomplished by using the Dokeos LMS. Additionally, the LMS offered by Dokeos allows the subscriber to update information as things change. This is hugely important since hackers are always finding new ways to get around existing cybersecurity measures.
Customize your content for your employees
You’ll want to have content that is specific to your organization and tailor-made to the roles your employees have. Dokeos enables you to customize your cybersecurity training for employees regardless of whether you have one staff member or a huge company. Since the LMS is fully customizable, you can update it as needs change. Hackers adapt very quickly, and you will be able to as well. A bonus is that you can monitor your employees’ progress to see how much they have absorbed and if there are any knowledge gaps.
Your employees are a valuable resource in preventing cyber attacks. Having a robust cybersecurity training program that reminds your staff of the basics can be critical in keeping your information safe.
Start your cybersecurity awareness training today
Employee awareness training for cybersecurity is too important to wait. Cyber attacks can seriously compromise the future of an organization, so there’s a lot to lose. As we’ve discussed, attacks have been increasing and are predicted to steadily rise as more people shift to remote work arrangements.
Sign up for a free trial with Dokeos to begin developing your training plan today. You’ll be able to design a plan to meet your needs and be on your way to keeping your organization safe.
