Human error. We mention it all the time, but what exactly do we mean? Human error is a simple mistake. It happens when a person performs a task with an unintended outcome. Because of the frequency of human error, you may have heard that employees are an organization’s weakest link. Without appropriate security awareness training, how can employees truly know what to watch out for? It’s important for you to provide your team with the tools they need to be successful so they can transform from weakest leak to strongest asset.
The 2019 IBM/Ponemon Cost of a Data Breach Study found that human error accounts for a large percentage of security incidents, yet security awareness training for employees often ends up on the back burner. Educating employees is crucial, especially for organizations with sensitive data. In addition, cyber criminals are growing more sophisticated and relentless in their efforts to carry out their attacks; and traditional cyber security products are not the catch-all for fighting cyber crime. For example, criminals have become masterminds at forming social engineering attacks (i.e. phishing emails) to trick their victims, a scheme that no antivirus or firewall can fully protect against.
A strong cyber security infrastructure does play a crucial role in defending an organization, but it’s important to remember that a layered security strategy is necessary for adequate protection. Since security incidents are often a result of employee mistakes, it’s clear that technology alone is not enough to protect your organization. Traditional safeguards like antivirus protection and firewalls are important, education through security awareness training is your key to success. However, cyber security training is simply not a top priority for many organizations.
Without appropriate security training, employees cannot effectively act as that first layer of defense. Our employee security training offering features engaging training videos with comprehension quizzes and is 100% online – allowing your employees to go through it at their own pace. Continual security awareness training will certainly help employees learn how to spot malicious attempts by cyber criminals, but it is also required to comply with many federal and state regulations.
A lack of training will open the door for cyber criminals and may result in a breach, causing potentially significant fines and penalties as well as damage to your reputation.
