We proudly provide professional phishing training for employees. Cybersecurity and phishing awareness training are critical to protect sensitive company data from would-be hackers. This knowledge can also help to reduce costs, empower employees, and maintain compliance with certain regulations. Because the cyberthreat landscape continues to grow more complex by the year, we gladly take the weight of education off your shoulders. Here we elaborate on the topic of phishing and why it’s so important for team members to understand this constant threat.
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What Is Phishing?
Companies face an ever-expanding threat landscape. The rise of ecommerce websites, cloud applications, online banking, and social media platforms open up organizations to many attack vectors. Criminals often seek to exploit businesses and their employees by compromising these accounts.
Phishing refers to attacks aimed at stealing credentials or personal information. Frequent targets are employees with access to accounts and passwords, banking information, and credit card numbers. Malicious actors may also try to access company devices, private networks, and physical locations. The common denominator in many successful phishing attacks is user error because it only takes one unsuspecting individual to compromise an entire company.
Criminals employ phishing attacks because they’re effective. They tend to use emails, text messages, voicemail, and social media messages to imitate a legitimate authority. For example, a hacker may send an email claiming to be a supervisor or administrator. They may even pose as a contractor, an elected official, or a professional from another company.
Along with email spam filters, individuals are the first line of defense against cybercrime. The best way to avoid falling victim to phishing attacks is always greater awareness. Knowing what to look for will help protect your data, your employees, and your business from harmful breaches.
Benefits of Phishing Awareness Training
Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. This makes phishing training for employees one of the best investments any business can make. Successful companies avoid cyberattacks by informing their teams about risks and closely following cybersecurity best practices.
Cybercrime costs companies millions. In fact, IBM reported that the average data breach in 2021 cost businesses over $4 million dollars, up nearly 10% from 2020. What’s more, nearly 40% of those data breaches stemmed from phishing attacks and compromised credentials. The report also mentions that improvements in security awareness training can reduce threat event frequency. This is likely because heightened awareness puts employees in a much better position to identify and avoid common attacks.
Phishing awareness training allows companies to maintain a proactive cybersecurity posture. It often involves education on malware, social engineering, email management, and the difference between trusted and untrusted links. Our phishing awareness training for employees features unlimited year-round simulations of real-word phishing attacks. This on-demand training is web-based and interactive, ensuring employees stay engaged throughout their sessions, regardless of time or place. We can also auto-enroll high-risk users on your behalf, as well as provide detailed reporting on your most vulnerable areas.
An informed staff member instantly improves a team’s readiness to identify and avoid phishing attacks. Whether they stem from email, text messages, voicemail, direct messages, or even calendar invites, prepared employees are more likely to notice when something seems fishy. Over time, they help to significantly reduce costs by minimizing downtime and bolstering regulatory compliance. That’s why many federal, state, and local agencies require some form of annual cybersecurity training.
Think Critically and Reduce Risk
Phishing attacks are just one of many cyberthreats facing today’s businesses. As the number of devices and applications grows, so do the opportunities for criminal exploitation. Phishing training for employees is so important because it’s simply impossible to eliminate user error entirely. The best solution is to give individuals the tools and education needed to think critically and reduce risks as much as possible. If your company doesn’t already provide phishing awareness training, contact us for more information. Our team is eager to help you greatly improve your cybersecurity posture today.
