According to statistics, 46% of all cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees.
With the threat landscape growing more complex and the number of cyber attacks increasing by the minute, the need for cyber awareness training within small business environments has never been more clear.
Don’t wait until it’s too late – invest in cyber security training for your business now. By doing so, you’ll be better prepared to defend against attacks and protect your valuable data.
In this blog, we’ll cover the benefits of security awareness training and how to start leveraging them today.
Importance of Security Awareness Training
Cyber awareness training educates your employees on potential threats and methods used to protect against them, with the goal of getting everyone involved in maintaining the highest level of security.
Training can focus on topics such as malware protection, password security, data encryption, secure file sharing, and understanding the risks associated with social engineering attacks.
Understanding the basics of cybersecurity makes it much easier for businesses to identify weak points in their defense, so that they may address them and minimize the risk posed by attackers. Here are five important benefits of cyber security training:
- Gain a better understanding of the threat landscape.
- Learn how to implement effective countermeasures.
- Improve your incident response capabilities.
- Reduce the risks associated with employee error or negligence.
- Demonstrate your commitment to protecting customer data and preserving brand reputation.
Read on to get a closer look at the benefits of cyber security training in closer detail!
Benefits of Security Awareness Training
Besides protecting your own data and systems, you must also be aware of the risks online threats pose for both your team members and customers.
Cyber security training can help you and your employees stay safe online, along with many other benefits for your business.
Here are five key reasons outlining the importance of security awareness training.
1. Improved Awareness of Online Threats
As mentioned above, one of the key benefits of cyber security training is improved awareness of the risks posed by online threats.
By understanding how cyber criminals operate and what they are looking for, you can be much better prepared to protect your business from the following threats:
- Malware
- Ransomware
- Phishing emails
- Business email compromise
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS)
- Social engineering attacks
- Unpatched systems and misconfigurations
- And more
Are you interested in learning more about safeguarding your business with cyber awareness training? Get in touch with us today.
2. Enhanced Employee Productivity
When your employees receive cybersecurity awareness training, they are more likely to know what they need to do in order to stay safe online.
Training programs can help your workforce gain an understanding of the importance of cyber safety and how to protect the company’s sensitive data, which encourages all members amongst your team to work within a secure knowledge base and reference the best practices of their security education.
Furthermore, by learning information security protocols, your employees can quickly recognize potential threats and take appropriate action, limiting disruption to workflow or operations.
This cyber resilience training will help you benefit from:
- Enhanced productivity levels with minimized human error
- Improved responsiveness in case of any issues
- Better management of data-related risks
3. Greater Protection for Your Business
Cybersecurity training is essential for any organization looking to improve their security posture – and your small business is no exception. By ensuring that all of your employees are trained in cyber security, this makes it harder for criminals to exploit your business.
Through a managed IT company, you can access cyber security awareness training programs to educate your team in training content such as:
- Data security architecture
- Design and management
- Ethical hacking techniques
- Secure coding principles
- Network security fundamentals
- And many other areas
These preventative measures are invaluable in keeping your organization safe from security threats while also giving peace of mind which shouldn’t be underestimated – especially in today’s world where data breach and cyber attacks are ever-present and always lurking.
4. Better Understanding of the Threat Landscape
In addition to learning different types of cyber-attacks such as phishing emails, ransomware and malware variants, cybersecurity training also helps your employees understand the current threat landscape by teaching them how to identify signs of malicious activity as well as how cyber threats may evolve in the future.
As breaches are becoming increasingly sophisticated, being trained and educated on popular attacks helps your team protect business assets against current and upcoming cyber threat trends.
This is especially crucial since as per statistics, a whopping 88 percent of data breach incidents are caused by employee mistakes. According to IBM Security, the percentage is 95 percent.
Understanding the changing security environment, however, will make it easier for your company to proactively protect against cyber attacks in the future.
5. Improved Reputation Amongst Clients and Partners
In today’s climate, businesses which take cybersecurity seriously are seen as being more trustworthy partners by clients and suppliers alike.
In providing employee training on how to identify threats and detect vulnerabilities, you provide assurance for your customers that their data will be secure within the company’s systems when doing business with you.
This helps build strong relationships with other businesses, which can lead to improved opportunities down the line.
Are you curious to learn more about the importance of security awareness training? Check out these additional resources!
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Outsourcing Cyber Awareness Training
When it comes to implementing proper security measures within your organization, investing in cyber awareness training is a worthwhile investment.
At Yardstick Technologies, we work directly with a team of comprehensive security professionals that help your business leverage the benefits of cybersecurity with:
- Comprehensive cybersecurity training
- Cybersecurity assessments
- Cloud security
- 24/7 365 network monitoring
- And more
This means that as a Yardstick client, you will have access to our highly recommended Edmonton IT company that provides cybersecurity training partners that equip your in-house team with the knowledge needed to stay safe against cyber threats.
Book a free consultation to find out more about how we can help educate your team and offer you the benefits of security awareness training today!
Featured Image Credit: standret
