The Complete Guide To Workplace Security Awareness

IT departments are solely responsible for eliminating cybersecurity threats, right? Well, not entirely. In fact, any employee could easily leak access to hackers by being careless. In this article, we’ll walk you through security awareness, computer security fundamentals, steps of security awareness training, benefits of workplace training, and how reliable and experienced businesses like First Class Connection are here to help. Here’s everything you need to know about workplace security awareness:

Computer Security Fundamentals

No matter their size, all businesses need to provide quality and extensive security awareness training policies for all employees. That’s in addition to creating an awareness template that workers can easily and quickly reference. By creating and implementing these security awareness plans of action, companies can impose security obligations on each of their employees. By now, you might be wondering, what exactly is security awareness?

What Is Security Awareness?

Workplace security awareness involves the specific proactive approaches to eliminate online or offline threats looking to breach company databases or information. Policies or frameworks created by your organization establish the basis of confidential information, protection steps from internal or external threats, general safety guidelines, and specific measures to follow in case of a cybersecurity emergency.

Employers and IT departments enhance the security of the organization by creating and implementing workplace security awareness.

Key Points of Security Awareness Training

In-person training has become a much less effective method for companies and IT departments over the past few years, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many businesses moving to a hybrid in-office, at-home work schedule, experts now recommend cyber training through various email and communication platforms. One of the best ways employees can retain information is by providing repeatable training.

Applications of internal cybersecurity awareness training should be contextualized to different levels of your company hierarchy, including: general training, concrete awareness for managers, and in-depth awareness for technology-specialized employees.

Now that we know the importance and a few aspects of implementing security procedures, let’s move on to what exactly security awareness training should cover.

What Should Security Awareness Training Cover?

Cybersecurity awareness training should cover these issues:

What the components of confidential data involve
Using password policy relating to length and validity
Maintaining a safe and secure work environment
Dealing with emails and communication messages with suspicious content and links
Storing and disposing of paper-based internal data and information
Internet and email access policies
Physical security awareness and training
Avoiding malicious software
IT engineering insights
Policies for emergency situations
Guidelines for unauthorized access control

A security policy should be developed in collaboration with every department in your organization and can be tailored specifically or focused on general procedures. But above all, cybersecurity must be prioritized by every business and organization today. It is better to be safe than sorry regarding security awareness training.

Who Should Participate in Security Awareness Training?

Small businesses and organizations are much more prone to security branches than large, established corporations. This is because smaller operations tend to have a reduced or less comprehensive infrastructure, lacking security specialists and quality budgets to fight security issues. Small businesses commonly experience fraud breaches when dealing with cyber hacking.

According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), more than 15 million cases of cyberattacks were targeted toward small businesses and organizations this past year.

Is your company or organization interested in implementing a workplace security awareness training program? Check out a few more tips on the importance of security awareness.

Why Security Awareness Is Important

Physical Security Awareness

The most common threat companies and organizations face outside of cybersecurity is unauthorized physical access. In many cases, a disgruntled employee looking to steal company information is likely a greater risk than a wandering visitor. Stolen or leaked data causes financial damage to a business. That’s in addition to identity theft and disclosure of sensitive data concerns.

Questions to Ask Regarding Physical Security

Businesses need to consider various scenarios in which a physical presence threatens security. Questions to ask regarding physical security should include the following:

How are entrances and doors accessed or controlled?
How do you identify a visitor?
How many employees have access to sensitive data and information?
Who should have access controlled or limited within the organization?
Does leadership have a plan in place for emergencies?

Benefits of Workplace Security Awareness Training

With quality awareness training programs, employees in companies are aware of both cyber and physical risks, can identify potential threats, establish a proactive method of security, and create a culture of security within the organization. Outlined below are in-depth benefits of workplace security awareness training:

Reduced Threats

With a workplace security awareness training program, employees are mindful of the best practices within applications and technologies at your business. Potential risks or data breaches are significantly reduced with frameworks set in place.

Employee Awareness

A quality workplace security awareness training program will drive the effectiveness of a cybersecurity program and help employees recognize when potential threats and risks are looming. The more your employees know, the better prepared your organization is to fight internal or external threats.

Reduced Downtime

Breaches or other security incidents will cause downtime within your system’s operating mechanism to identify and patch the issue. Downtime is not only costly for businesses, but it delays productivity across departments. Workplace security awareness training programs work to eliminate the threat at the source.

First Class Connection: An Industry-Leading Provider of Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Small Businesses

At First Class Connections, our team of experts is committed to continuous education within cybersecurity. Since 2014, our managed detection and response security services have enhanced organization’s connectivity, mobility, and productivity. Give us a call today to begin working with a first-class connection partner.