Why Cyber Security Training is Important for Employees

13 December 2021

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If your business hasn’t gotten its employees up to speed on cyber security, then it’s only a matter of time before you regret that decision. Cyber security’s importance only increases as every industry becomes more and more digitized. Even the most unlikely of fields, at one point or another, will have to encounter a device with data in it.

Increasing security awareness through every available communication platform is crucial in today’s job industry. Today, this article will be discussing what positives you are missing out on by not teaching cyber security to your employees.

Defend Your Workplace from Hackers

The first and foremost positive is preventing the likelihood of a security breach. For untrained employees, they might even have breaches already occurring, just happening in the background. A lot of viruses often have the most success when they don’t make their presence known.

Instead, they simply take in all the data and sell it to whoever wants confidential information from your company.

Data breaches will happen eventually, and that will set you back in the costs of millions to patch up. Alternatively, you could simply start training your employees on safe cyber practices, for relatively little cost.

Maintain a Culture of Cyber Security

A culture of cyber security is one of the best ways to “soft” train your new employees. Once you have your existing staff trained and tested, new employees will have a much easier time learning what they learned.

While they undergo the same training, the new employees now have the experience of older employees on what cybersecurity practices they should prioritize.

A culture of security is one of the best ways to defend your organization from data breaches and malware attacks. Remember, despite its name, cyber security starts on the human level, not the computer.

Instill Confidence in your Customers

These days, the news will cover major data breaches, and that news reaches your client base. Customers will see this and start questioning whether or not your organization is safe.

They will start looking you up online, and if they get the vibe that your company is not cyber-secure, they may avoid doing business with you.

Consumers want companies to be safer, and if you’ve had one cyber-attack in the past, that’s potentially one less customer for you in the future.

Don’t assume that cyber-attacks are only harmful when they happen. Oftentimes, the threat of an attack is enough to drive away customers from your business. Ensure that this doesn’t happen by emphasizing your company’s appreciation and implementation of cyber security.

Enhance Digital Defenses in Place

Some companies may choose to put all their security eggs into a purely technological basket. After all, there’s no need to train all your employees on cyber security if you have enough high-tech defenses set up, which theoretically means those employees will never be reached.

However, this mindset is doomed to failure.

The reality is that every technological defense still needs people to maintain it. Users are always going to be the greatest vulnerability. If a user is unaware of why these high-tech securities are needed, then they can easily be duped by hackers into a breach. No amount of technology can fix user error.

Pass Compliance

Compliance does not mean “the bare minimum”. A lot of businesses who believe they have done “good enough” end up failing their compliance tests. If they somehow manage to avoid failure, then it’s only a matter of time for their laziness to bite them.

Compliance is increasingly becoming a requirement for many regulators. Properly implementing cyber security training into your business ensures that you pass your compliance tests with flying colors.

In addition to passing compliance, there’s also the benefit of certification. Many regulators give a tangible report of your success, and you can use this to your advantage.

For example, if a customer is wondering about how secure your business is, you can provide them with the details of a successful report, or simply direct their eyes to your certification as a safe workplace.

Ensures the Safety of your Business Partners

By continuing to remain untrained in cyber security, your company essentially becomes a backdoor into all of your business partners’ data. While they may have their own security protocols in place, any data they send to you becomes vulnerable because your company is vulnerable.

If that becomes known, many of your partners may just break off ties with your business altogether. This doesn’t just burn any potential long-term business relationships. If publicized, customers may also stop using your products and services.

Famous malware attacks such as WannaCry and ILOVEYOU show that this isn’t an unfounded fear. A single virus managed to spread to so many companies thanks to unsecured data channels. It’s important that the identity of yourself and your associates remains secure, be it on Google Cloud or Outlook.