We cannot emphasize the importance of cyber security enough. With November signaling the end of cyber security awareness month, here at Euclid Security we have put together some of the top reasons you need to ensure that yourself and your employees are up to date on your information technology knowledge. 

1. Cyber attacks are becoming more common each year

“There are only two types of companies: Those that have been hacked and those that will be.”

 Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice

During 2020, and even during cyber security awareness month, roughly 30,000 websites were hacked into every single day (Source: Sophos Security Threat Report). The majority of them were smaller businesses that are often targeted due to the likelihood of them having lower security. Commissioning cyber security training for employees doesn’t just reduce your risk of being hacked but also means you are more likely to spot potential danger in the first place and know how to fight the threat before it’s too late.

2. Your enemy is smarter than ever, so your employees need to be too

In this case, the ‘enemy’ are hackers who want to gain access to your IT systems, whether to cause harm or for data theft. Criminals are likely to use human emotions to their advantage by using tactics that create a sense of urgency or prey on your kindness and curiosity. This means that your employees will often be your first line of defense. Worryingly, 56% of Americans claim that they would not know what to do under the threat of a security attack (Source: Varonis), and without proper cyber security training for employees and awareness activities, they might not even recognize that they are under attack in the first place. 

3. One in every five cyber security attacks leads to a loss of data and/or money (Source: Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020)

Unfortunately, many companies don’t fully understand the importance of cyber security until they have already suffered from the consequences of a cyber attack. Suppose an attacker successfully gains access to your environment via social engineering against your untrained employees and introduces ransomware or gains access to yours or clients, data. Now you have to deal with many problems, including your business continuity and potential contract losses. Some of the worst-case scenarios are much more severe; Every year, businesses lose millions of dollars due to cyber attacks, not to mention the private data that can be used to destroy a business’s reputation and impact thousands of customers.

4. Cyber security is constantly evolving

With attackers becoming smarter and tricker to catch and the number of cyber attacks consistently increasing, it is more important than ever to ensure that your cyber security training for employees and security awareness programs are efficient and up to date. Over half of businesses update their senior management’s training around cyber security on a quarterly basis (Source: Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020), with a great deal of them choosing to perform a large update during cyber security awareness month. We highly recommend that you continuously keep all of your employees up to date with their training when it comes to cyber security. Some companies choose to have an in-house expert; however, this can often be too costly for smaller businesses, which is why we offer training and simulated phishing exercises in packages that align with your goals and budget.

5. Reduce your risk while improving your compliance

Companies worldwide are bound to rules and legislation that is put in place to protect customers and their customers. Employee training is essential to prevent cyber security incidents and ensure that your business operates in a fashion that protects its reputation, data, and clients. HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and other laws and regulations require employee training in varying degrees. This is why cyber security training is vital, untrained employees are more likely to violate the governing entity’s mandates, which results in high fines and reputational consequences. For instance, failure to comply with HIPAA when necessary can lead to penalties of up to $50,000 per individual incident (Source: Compliancy Group). Although compliance doesn’t always equal cyber safety, it certainly helps, so keeping your employees’ knowledge up to date on these matters is an important step to take as this could save you from running into larger issues further along. 

At Euclid Security, we offer a range of services, including simulated phishing exercises and cyber security training, with comprehensive topic coverage to guarantee that your employees are in an excellent position to ensure your business’s safety and compliance. Euclid Security is based in the United States but we offer our services worldwide, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for a no-obligation discussion if you have any cyber security or compliance concerns.

Tags: Cybersecurity Training for Employees, Importance of Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Awareness Month