The Importance of Employee Security Training
Impact of Employee Security Training
The majority of enterprise cybersecurity incidents can be traced back to a mistake made by an employee. Whether this came in the form of a clicking on a phishing email or lackluster security policies implemented by management– these failures all typical result from a lack of security training and awareness.
Security training empowers employees and management with information about potential threats, as well as best practices and procedures when it comes to business operations in a digital environment. An effective program will be comprehensive, mandatory and should be applicable to every member of the organization. Leadership is especially important in fostering a culture of security within an enterprise.
The time and expense incurred from mandating organizational security awareness training is far superseded by the cost of a security incident resulting from employee ignorance or lack of due-diligence by management. The cost of a breach is borne not only in terms of monetary losses but also in the form of reputational damage, potential litigation, compliance fines, etc. Arguably the most cost effective method of cybersecurity comes in the form of security awareness training.
Assumptions hurt your business
There should be no assumption that basic security practices are commonplace amongst enterprises or its employees. Statistics from various sources illustrate how many organizations neglect basic cybersecurity training/awareness:
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45% of organizations don’t have any security training[1]
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52% of organizations don’t employ any form of anti-phishing training[2]
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Roughly 25% of organizations have a social engineering awareness program[3]
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55% of organizations don’t have a basic email security program[4]
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65% of organizations employ security training schemes that are of limited practical use when put into practice[5]
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85% of finance workers lacked knowledge on basic cybersecurity concepts[6]
References
[1] https://www.comptia.org/content/research/the-evolution-of-security-skills
[2] https://www.getapp.com/resources/annual-data-security-report/
[3] https://www.getapp.com/resources/annual-data-security-report/
[4] https://www.zdnet.com/article/phishing-why-remote-working-is-making-it-harder-for-you-to-spot-phoney-emails/
[5] https://nationalcybersecuritynews.today/how-often-should-businesses-run-cybersecurity-awareness-training-socialmedia/
[6] https://www.align.com/blog/6-reasons-why-businesses-need-cyber-security-awareness-training
Additional References
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