Changing Landscape of Cyber Security
Cyber Security has always been a moving target. In the past, bad actors would hunt and search for their targets. Due to the time it took to research, plan, and execute attacks, larger businesses were chosen to maximize the reward if they were successful. It used to be that smaller businesses were overlooked and safe due to their small size. The potential reward was small, and unknown small businesses were not on the menu.
Today the tactics have changed. Instead of hunting and selecting specific targets, hackers now fish for whomever will come to them. Like a fisherman putting out baited hooks, they send out emails that are baited with Malware and Ransomware. This tactic is called Phishing. The scary thing here is that hackers who are phishing no longer care how large or small you may be. If you click on their email link you are a target.
By now almost everyone has heard of phishing and ransomware. The news is full of stories of companies, large and small, being held hostage by hackers who have encrypted their data and demand payment to decrypt it. What can be done?
A Majority of Data Breaches Happen Due to Human Error
In the past a network firewall was your main source of protection from cyber threats. IT professionals got very good at implementing perimeter defenses on your network. They could make sure that no one that wasn’t authorized could come through the front doors of your network. However, it doesn’t matter how secure your front door is if someone has left the back door open. This is essentially what is happening. Emails are being sent to employees at your company. These emails contain links that open a virtual backdoor that can circumvent your perimeter defenses.
How can you better protect your organization and employees from these types of threats? Just like on your network where your Network Firewall protects the network, you need a Human Firewall to protect your people. This is not a device but rather a philosophy where you train and instill security practices into your company and employee culture. One of the main components of this is to make everyone in your organization aware of the threats and what to look for in order to spot them.
Security Awareness Training has gone from a nice thing to have (as long as you have room in your budget) to now a necessity to make sure your users are prepared for the onslaught of cyber risks that they face every day. By providing regular, relevant cyber security training you will minimize the risk around your people.
Making Education a Priority
Security awareness training is not a one-time event, nor should it be a yearly gathering in a conference room for everyone to check a box of compliance. It should happen often and it should be relevant to them. We recommend that it occur at least monthly for the best results. You also need to verify and test to make sure the training is working. This is where performing a phishing simulation on your company is important. This is where you get to think like your enemy and send a fake phishing email to your users. If anyone clicks on the link it will direct them to relevant training instead of encrypting their computer files. As you perform regular phishing simulations against your company you will see trends emerge that you can address and make better.
Where Do I Get Started?
Advanced Data can provide relevant and interesting Security Awareness Training and cutting edge Phishing Simulations to train staff and verify your business vulnerability. We also have Cyber Security expertise in-house that are already watching, preventing attacks and honing their skills with our current Flat Fee IT customers. If you would like to tap into their recommendations or have them assure your business is secure and protected, please Give us a call!