When employees understand risk, they’re better prepared to identify it, proactively manage it, and eradicate minor threats before they become widespread events with devastating consequences.
Welcome back to our Managing Digital Risk series. In part 1, we looked at how human error is one of the biggest security risks to your business. Here in part 2, we want to highlight the number one solution for protecting your organisation: ensuring that every employee is aware of the cyber risks your business is facing, and understands the most effective ways to reduce them.
What is security awareness training?
Security awareness training helps your employees to understand more about the particular digital risks and cyber threats that exist within your industry or organisation. It also helps them recognise the specific ways that they’re statistically most likely to be targeted, should an attack be carried out.
When employees understand risk, they’re better prepared to identify it, proactively manage it, and eradicate minor threats before they become widespread events with devastating consequences.
So what does good security awareness training look like? At Reliable Networks, we think it should be…
- Delivered in a way that’s accessible, and easy for every employee to comprehend
- Tailored to your specific industry, and the threats that exist within that sector
- Updated regularly, offering the latest guidance on the newest threats
- Easy to align with real-world scenarios, rather than simply being theoretical
Unfortunately, not all security awareness programmes tick all these boxes. Especially not the last one. That’s why we take a slightly different approach to security awareness training.
Simulated attacks
At Reliable Networks, we phish your employees. Yes, really!
This might sound strange, but it really works. We carry out simulated attacks, delivering safe yet suspicious communications directly to your employees’ inboxes. This allows us to see exactly how your staff would respond to a potential attack in a real-life situation, and gives us insight into where there are gaps in employee knowledge. Armed with this insight, we’re able to deliver more powerful, more personalised training which results in the development of smarter, more aware employees.
But there’s just one small problem…
The smart staff challenge
Building a team of aware and alert staff who understand what a potential attack may look like – and how to handle it – is, of course, one of the best things you can do to protect your organisation.
However, the fact is that the more aware your employees are, the more they’re actively looking out for threats and flagging suspicious emails. Good for them – but bad for your IT team, who now have a fivefold increase in the number of suspected threats that they have to look through and verify!
Our solution is simple: PhishER, from KnowBe4.
In part 1 of this series, we briefly discussed our proud partnership with KnowBe4, a leader in phishing protection and security. Coming up in part 3, we’re sharing how we’re using one of KnowBe4’s most advanced solutions to solve the smart staff challenge, and make it easier for businesses to manage their user-identified threats quickly, efficiently, and with confidence.
Keen to find out more about how we can help keep your employees – and your business – safe?
