The Quick-Start Guide to End-User Training For Cybersecurity
Your staff (end-users) can help or hinder your overarching cybersecurity efforts. Well-trained staff are capable of spotting threats early and avoiding IT actions that could put your company’s data at risk. However, employees without up-to-date cybersecurity education can inadvertently put companies at risk of serious compromise.
Consider that in 2022, insider threats rose to an all-time high, with 35% of attacks coming from inside the digital house. While many of these threats were accidental — staff might inadvertently share information with the wrong person or repeat the same password for multiple applications — they nonetheless exposed organizations to significant risk.
To help enhance cybersecurity and reduce the chance of compromise, end-user security training is critical. By giving employees the skills and knowledge they need to recognize potential threats and take specific actions, your staff can help improve corporate security posture.
In this piece, we’ll explore the importance of end-user training, offer eight steps to get started, and highlight how Acropolis can help.
The Importance of End-User Security Training
Threats are continually changing. Attackers are always looking for new ways to breach business defenses and find their way into your secure network services and data storage applications. While technology solutions such as malware scanners, scam email detectors, and next-generation firewalls (NGWFS) can reduce the chance of successful attacks, the evolving nature of security threats means companies need to employ every resource available to them — including the human element.
Here are just a few potential consequences of a data breach:
Reduced Productivity
If attackers manage to breach your systems, the result could be a partial or total shutdown of operations, in turn reducing productivity. Consider a phishing email that convinces an employee to click a malicious link. The link downloads malware, which in turn infects networks and begins propagating across systems. Suddenly, your staff are experiencing IT slowdowns, and productivity grinds to a halt as finding the source of the infection becomes the top priority.
Hidden Attackers
After compromising systems, attackers may leave behind pieces of code that allow them to spy on operations and even log employee keystrokes. This creates a concerning scenario where companies may address the initial compromise but not realize that persistent threats remain.
Encrypted Data
All it takes is one. One employee sharing credentials because of a seemingly legitimate request can allow attackers to install ransomware. Suddenly, teams find themselves locked out of operational data while attackers demand payment for the release of encrypted information. Even if the ransom is paid, complete restoration is not guaranteed.
Reputation and Trust Fallout
When sensitive customer information is compromised, it can lead to widespread negative sentiment among your customers, who may feel betrayed and vulnerable. The perception of your company can plummet, resulting in a loss of customer loyalty and trust. In today's interconnected world, news of a data breach can spread rapidly through social media and news outlets, amplifying the damage. Restoring trust and reputation after an incident can be a long and challenging process, often involving costly marketing & PR efforts and extended periods of damage control.
Eight Steps for Effective End-User Training
So, how do companies get from recognizing risks to creating programs that effectively train end-users in threat recognition and reduction? Here are eight steps to get started.
Know Your Users
Before you create an employee training program, take the time to understand your employees. How do most staff work: At home, in the office, or a mix of both? How much do employees know about security best practices, and how many inside incidents have you experienced in the past year? The past six months?
By understanding where your staff excels and where they may struggle with security, it’s possible to create training programs that shore up their weaknesses and help reinforce their strengths.
Identify Your Weak Points
Next up is identifying your weak points. For example, one common area of concern for companies is application access. If your organization lacks tools such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), it may be possible for staff to inadvertently access data they don’t need and potentially expose this data online. Pinpointing your weak points helps set the stage for the creation of a targeted training program.
While it’s possible to search for weak spots in-house, this often leads to confirmation bias — staff familiar with the system may overlook potential problems. Meanwhile, working with a trusted security provider to conduct an outside-in assessment can help find hidden issues.
Secure Resources and Support
Training programs are only successful with budgetary resources and C-suite support. As a result, it’s worth seeking CIOs, CISOs, or other executive members to help kickstart training projects. Not only does having a C-suite member’s buy-in reduce the time from design to implementation, but it can also improve reliable access to resources.
Create a Plan
Planning comes next. Now, it’s all about the end goal. What specific outcomes are you hoping to achieve? For example, if the security analysis found that your business was regularly victimized by phishing attacks, it may be worth designing a program that targets this issue with in-depth training that helps staff recognize and report possible phishing attempts.
Bring End Users in Early
The sooner you bring in end users, the better. Here’s why: By making them part of the process, IT teams can identify possible friction points in training. If there’s too much friction, staff will simply ignore training programs, rendering them useless. By getting staff buy-in, businesses can ensure that education meets expectations.
Conduct Both Scheduled and Non-Scheduled Training
Scheduled end-user training sessions and evaluations are great for initial education. These often include an introduction to common attack types such as phishing, ransomware, and advanced persistent threats, along with examples of each to help staff see them in action.
It’s also worth conducting unscheduled training to see if knowledge has stuck. This could include a fake phishing campaign that tests the ability of staff to recognize and report fraudulent emails.
Ask for Staff Feedback
Don’t be afraid of staff feedback. After all, the goal of these programs is to improve employee education — if they say you’re going about it the wrong way, it’s worth considering. This doesn’t mean that entire training programs should be scrapped if employees don’t like them, but rather that staff opinion should play a role in program design.
Get Expert Help
Designing, creating, and implementing a cybersecurity training program is no easy task, especially when IT teams are already tasked with managing business technology operations. Here, a trusted partner can help. By working with a reputable, reliable security provider, businesses can streamline the creation of training programs and improve security outcomes.
How Acropolis Technology Group Can Help Get Your Staff Up to Speed
The disparate nature of technology, from remote work to mobile devices to cloud services, makes it challenging for companies to handle end-user security on their own.
At Acropolis, we have the skills and services necessary to help your business bolster employee education. From cybersecurity training programs to reinforcement programs, security assessments, and 24/7/365 managed services that safeguard your company, we can help your team tackle both sides of the cybersecurity equation.
Ready to get end users up to speed with security? Get in touch, and let’s find the best solution for your business.