There are three methods that make an effective defence against cybersecurity: tools, processes and arguably the most important factor, people.
Building a successful IT security culture is vital to protecting sensitive data. But what happens if your organisation lacks the fundamentals of a security ethos? Serious data breaches and a lack of safety awareness will leave companies open and vulnerable to cybercriminal activity. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 issued in April 2019 around a third (32%) of businesses and two in ten charities (22%) reported having any kind of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.
Building consistent behaviours
To build consistent behaviours, an organisation must create awareness of the desired behaviours by having an efficient security awareness program in place. Senior management who treat cyber security as a high priority are more likely to say that its core staff take it seriously, with organisations needing to make sure every employee is aware of the potential threats they face. This could be in the form of sharing passwords, an insecure network or a phishing email.
With cyber attacks coming in all forms, in a security landscape that is forever changing, regular team meetings and training are absolutely necessary to keep everyone in the business up to date on what to look out for.
Security needs to be fun and engaging, which in itself can be a challenge. Gamification activity between departments and using incentives can develop a culture that is willingly happy to participate in IT security.
Awareness training
Companies need a collective cyber security awareness, good education and a collaborative process to build a strong foundation. Research has proven that traditional cyber security awareness measures can be greatly enhanced by a multi-faceted security programme that is delivered through different media, formats and channels. This may include Red Teaming, a targeted and objective-led exercise designed to identify weaknesses in your organisation’s cyber and physical defences, or Social Engineering, which encompasses cyber attacks such as ransomware and phishing.
It is vital to create an environment where all employees are aware of the risk that hackers pose, and where they feel comfortable reporting unusual or suspicious activity. Employees are the last line of defence. But they need to be made aware of the measures that are in place to protect them if they make a mistake, as well as the cyber risks they could come up against and what they need to look out for.
Falanx Cyber Awareness Training
Educating yourself and your staff on the kinds of cyber attacks they are most vulnerable to and how to respond to them is the key starting block to building a security-aware culture.
Falanx’s Cyber’s awareness training services methods are aimed to educate you in using the best methods possible to fight back against phishing attacks, ensuring you and your staff are the first line of defence.
NEXT: Rob Shapland, Head of Cyber Awareness, discusses Ethical Hacking on BBC Breakfast.
About Falanx Cyber
Falanx Cyber puts enterprise-class cyber security services within reach of every organisation. We identify areas of cyber risk threatening the integrity of your business and provide complete end-to-end managed cyber security services to alleviate those risks. Combining proactive managed detection and response services with penetration testing, incident response and consultancy.
