In the world of cyber security, employees are your first line of defense.
Employees are online all day, moving between web pages, watching videos, receiving emails, and downloading applications, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Security awareness training can mitigate the risk of a potential cyberattack and save your organization thousands of dollars and a damaged reputation.
Data breaches can affect a firm in numerous negative ways that have a lasting impact on the company’s bottom line. Studies have shown that 65% of potential clients lose trust in an organization after a significant cyberattack.
Cyber security awareness training can teach employees how to be mindful of, and avoid possible cyber threats, phishing schemes, or unknowingly downloading malware/ransomware on company computers.
The 5 Major Benefits of Security Awareness Training
The importance of security awareness training is that it will keep your staff aware of cyber criminal tactics, so they can learn to spot and avoid them, acting as the last line of defense for your business against hackers and data thieves.
Here are the 5 primary advantages of having your workforce undergo cyber security awareness training.
1. Less Risk of Human Error
In 2020 it was estimated that nearly over 85% of all data breaches included a human element..
Often, human error results from:
- Browsing social media accounts
- Falling prey to social engineering attacks like phishing scams
- Opened links in spam emails
- Downloading apps or attachments with hidden ransomware
- Logging into company networks on a public Wi-Fi
- Visiting unsecured websites
By implementing a continuous information security awareness program, your employees will understand the importance of using technology appropriately. A routine training program educates employees on current security threats, how to handle a potential phishing email, avoid public Wi-Fi on company devices, not use company property for personal reasons, and more.
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2. Cost Savings
There are estimates that data breaches cost all companies worldwide upwards of $400 billion each year. For multinational conglomerates, taking a big hit isn’t too devastating. However, if a small or medium-sized business experiences a breach, the financial damage may be severe enough that they end up closing their doors for good.
While adding security awareness training to your company’s training schedule may increase spending costs, having that training is well worth the expense if it saves your company from an attack on your data.
3. Mitigate Downtime
A data breach can have devastating and far-reaching consequences for a company. Damages can include lost data, lost productivity, and lost reputation. Having a disaster recovery plan is an important step that helps reduce downtime after an attack and improve overall data protection.
While it is ideal a cyber-attack would never happen in the first place, hackers are savvy and sadly there’s never any guarantee that any business is 100% immune from a breach.
One of the main benefits of cyber security training is ensuring employees are aware of what threats look like, where they come from, and how to avoid them to reduce downtime and keep your business productive. This way, you stand a better chance of stopping an attack before it happens.
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4. Ensure Compliance
Government regulations for businesses of all types continue to increase. In fact, any firm that handles personal, sensitive, or classified information must adhere to regulatory compliance standards. Violating such standards, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), could cost your company a hefty fine ranging from $100 to $50,000.
Keeping your company compliant through cybersecurity awareness training that includes regulatory compliance policies and how to handle sensitive or classified information means it will be less likely that your company will be fined for policy violations.
5. Improve Client Confidence
A recent study showed that 86.6% of consumers would be hesitant to use a company that was once affected by a cyberattack (CSO Online).
Statistics like these, and the one mentioned above, show that clients are becoming increasingly aware of cyber risks.
One of the best ways to combat potential threats and give your clients peace of mind is to implement regular and comprehensive cyber awareness training for your entire company. You must push that messaging as part of your company culture.
If clients know you’re serious about taking proactive steps to prevent breaches, they’re much more likely to choose your business over a competitor.
Getting Started with the Benefits of Security Awareness Training for Your Company
There are many benefits of cyber security training and ensuring employees understand security best practices is smart for any business. The result can be the difference between your network being down for an insurmountable amount of time and carrying on with business as usual.
CP Cyber can create for you a robust security program that includes cyber security training so all facets of your business are protected.
Contact us today to learn about the importance of user technology security education within your organizations.