With the alarming increase in cybercrime rates in the world of business today, it is not surprising that you would want to protect your company in every way possible. Especially since the majority of all breach victims are small businesses. And with the human error being the main cause of successful cyberattacks, you should first and foremost focus on your employees. If they have not received any kind of training in cybersecurity, they will remain the biggest concern.

People should not be completely blamed, of course, since cybercriminals use cunning ways to deceive even the most careful ones. With phishing being amongst the preferred methods of obtaining personal information, with 33% of all data breaches caused by social attacks, it is becoming more and more difficult to ascertain the validity of incoming emails. Cybercriminals have become so proficient in social engineering that even the CEO ́s are frequent victims.

For these reasons, it is of utmost importance to educate and train your employees in cybersecurity protection, to minimize the possibility of disclosing any sensitive data. Here are additional ways you can make cybersecurity training more effective and increase the protection of your business.

1.       Educate your employees on cybersecurity

Before they learn how to efficiently protect themselves, they should first know what they are protecting themselves from. To start with, they should know what exactly is cybercrime, why it represents such a threat, in which ways can cybercrime be performed, etc. They have to understand the importance of cybersecurity so they could devote themselves to it.

2.       Point out the most dangerous aspects

Since the majority of data breaches are caused by social engineering, focus on the most common methods, like phishing, vishing, pretexting, baiting, etc. Physical protection is also important to stress out, making sure that business phones and computers are kept safe and out of reach. They should be protected with strong passwords, which should be often changed.

3.       Integrate cybersecurity into your business culture

It is not enough to provide them with official training; cybersecurity should become part of your business culture. This means talking about it, having discussions, maybe even scheduling regular meetings to make sure everyone is on board and fully aware. Cybersecurity should be an everyday topic, on top of everyone's mind at all times.

4.       Simulate cyberattacks

Just like fire drills are the accepted method of checking the level of preparedness in the case of fire, the same can be applied to cybersecurity. This could be orchestrated by your own security department, if you have one, or by a third-party, which would try and extract personal information from your employees or trade secrets. Based on the outcome, you can either praise the employee who succeeded in recognizing the false attack or if they failed the test, use that as a lesson.

5.       Train, train, then train some more

Just because your employees have gone through some kind of cybersecurity training and education, doesn't mean that is where it ends. Cybercrime is evolving by the day, so you should keep up with it by enabling continuous training and updates during the whole year for all levels of your staff, including the high management and executives. Each position and industry has its own specifics related to cyberprotection, so make sure to adapt the training to each employee's job.

In addition to the article, you may want to take a look at our infographic - a mixture of the most expensive data breaches, the most well-known cybercriminals, fun facts, advice, the impact of hacking on big businesses and much more.

In addition to the article, you may want to take a look at our infographic - a mixture of the most expensive data breaches, the most well-known cybercriminals, fun facts, advice, the impacts of hacking on big business and much more.