Cybersecurity Awareness Month is Here!

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) lead a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally.

Every year has a unique theme, and this year’s is “See Yourself in Cybersecurity”. This year’s focus is on two very important goals. The first is to remind everyone that cybersecurity starts with people making smart choices. The second purpose of this theme is to encourage people to choose to pursue careers in cybersecurity to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers that is only getting worse.

Can Your Users Identify Major Risks? 

Employees are a company’s first line of defense against cybercrime. Arming employees with the knowledge that they need to spot and stop cyberattack threats with security awareness training can reduce a company’s chance of a cybersecurity incident by up to 70%.  Are your users prepared to confidently deal with these dangerous threats?  

Phishing – The most common threat that employees face is also the most dangerous. 1 in 3 employees who receive a phishing message take the bait.   

Malicious Insiders – Employees who know what to look for can be a game-changer. Malicious insider actions are responsible for an estimated 25% of confirmed data breaches.    

Credential Compromise – Good password hygiene can prevent bad security outcomes faster than anything else. Over 40% of organizations have been compromised by a bad password.  

Spear Phishing – Phishing threats are evolving to be harder to detect constantly to slip past business security.  Unfortunately, 97% of employees can’t detect a sophisticated phishing email.  

Business Email Compromise (BEC) – This complex threat is very hard to detect and very dangerous.  BEC is 64x more revenue damaging than ransomware for businesses.  

Account Takeover (ATO) – 1 in 5 users will face an ATO attack that endangers their company, and very few of them are ready for it.   

Brand Fraud & Spoofing – 25% of all branded emails that companies receive are spoofed or brand impersonation attempts. Can your users spot a fake?  

Ransomware & Malware – Today’s most terrifying threat is growing rapidly with no end in sight. But only an estimated 30% of untrained internet users even know what ransomware or malware is.   

Malicious Attachments – Employees handle attachments every day and one wrong move could be a disaster. Almost 50% of malicious files attached to emails are disguised as Office files.   

General Cybersecurity Tips from CISA

Throughout October, CISA and NCA will highlight key action steps that everyone should take: 

• Think Before You Click: If a link looks a little off, think before you click. It could be an attempt to get sensitive information or install malware.  
• Update Your Software: Don’t delay — If you see a software update notification, act promptly. Better yet, turn on automatic updates. 
• Use Strong Passwords: Use passwords that are long, unique, and randomly generated. Use password managers to generate and remember different, complex passwords for each of your accounts. A password manager will encrypt passwords securing them for you! 
• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication: You need more than a password to protect your online accounts, and enabling MFA makes you significantly less likely to get hacked. 

Security Awareness & Compliance Training Made Easy

 CISA recently recommended that companies step up their security awareness training programs to combat the current flood of cyber threats.  It’s the right move to make – Venture Beat reports that 84% of businesses in a recent survey said that security awareness training has reduced their phishing failure rates, making their employees better at spotting and stopping phishing, the gateway to most of today’s nastiest cyber threats.     

Want to learn more about security awareness training and how it can help secure your company and save you money?  Contact us today or book a discovery session!