Could These Mistakes Be Sabotaging Your Cybersecurity Training Efforts?

Could These Mistakes Be Sabotaging Your Cybersecurity Training Efforts

So, it’s meeting day. As CFO, you’re pumped and ready to lay down the strategies that kept you awake and excited from the previous night till this morning. All notes and files are prepared for action, and you cannot help but stare at your contemporary wall clock too many times. 

Then an email comes in – the cleaning company you patronize needs your signature for some documents, and the deadline comes up during the meeting you might already be late for. Without reading through, you click submit, and rush out of the office. 

While dropping your solid and valid points in the meeting, an employee runs in and notifies the IT head your systems have been compromised. The IT head sighs, looks in your direction, and then gives you that “what did you do” look. Yes, it was all your fault. You interacted with the wrong mail. 

Whose Fault Is It? 

In retrospect, employees are a business’s most valuable asset, yet they may also be its greatest cybersecurity risk. When it comes to cybersecurity, many staff might want to be intentional, yet even minor errors can lead to significant issues such as downtime and data loss. That is why staff must get regular cybersecurity training.

But then, sometimes, it’s not just about the employees, even after training. Certain policies could be undermining and causing adverse effects to the training and other policies that have been implemented for the same purpose of improving cybersecurity.

It could be C-level executives, a door guy, or even a janitor. It could also be the responsibility of the cyber security team on duty.

Gone are the days of cybersecurity being the responsibility of just the IT guy or department. Ensuring company security is always at its best to ward off cyberattacks is everyone’s responsibility – with a robust emphasis on the word “everyone.” This is why any mistake from any level of the organization should be prevented and well-guarded against. After all, 83% of SMEs do not have enough funds to deal with the effects of cyberattacks. 

Mistakes That Might be Sabotaging Your Cybersecurity Training Efforts 

Below are some mistakes that could be sabotaging your cybersecurity training efforts:

Ignoring Design and Process Errors During Testing

Most people do not know that security testing entails more than just discovering bugs and vulnerabilities. Design errors provide just as much of a risk. They may be substantially higher, given that human error is virtually the fundamental cause of a data leak.

As a result, security testing is not simply going through an application’s code to look for possible bugs and issues. The testing procedure must also include a detailed assessment of the software’s design and methods. In the same way, software restrictions alone will not protect your company against bot attacks.

It would help if you also establish the necessary processes and rules, such as password requirements and authorized mobile device use.

Relying on data from a single campaign

With over 3 billion phishing assaults daily, it’s reasonable to assume that all hacking attacks can be categorized into different classes based on complexity, language, approach, or even methods. After all, there are over 3 billion phishing (just phishing!) attacks per day. 

This means that no one phishing simulation can truly represent the risk of a business; all of them look alike in one form or the other. Relying on a single phishing simulation outcome is not likely to deliver dependable results and provide a good and reliable platform to prepare strategies for future planning.

Another key aspect is that various employees respond differently to threats, not just because of their position, alertness, tenure, training, or even level of education but because the response to phishing attempts is also based on context. One way to combat and correct this is to implement various types of training programs. 

Because behavior change evolves, it should be monitored over time, where each training session will contribute to the entire training process. Training effectiveness will then be determined only after multiple training sessions.

However, a better option here is to run several training programs with multiple simulations on a regular basis.

Developing Short-term Solutions Only

There is a teeming yet unidentified problem many people have highlighted, and no one seems to care. Businesses and companies, when attacked, only proffer solutions (and solve) the current issue and do not see a need to plan for long-term solutions.  

To be specific, if your firm does not have a long-term security strategy in place, you have not done the essential steps to secure your systems and data. You can’t only think about the short term. Security policies need to be developed while thinking far, far, far ahead, such as:

  • How will you deal with evolving technology? 
  • How will you integrate new advancements while eliminating outdated IT security architecture?

You cannot afford (pun intended) to dismiss these questions.

Need To Implement a Custom Cybersecurity Program? Haxxess is Here for You!

Haxxess is a top IT service provider operating out of Northern Ontario. We offer employee cybersecurity training, network security, and a host of other IT services. 

Contact us today to get started.

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