Cybersecurity Compliance: Is Your First-line Defense in Top Form?

Raise your eyes and look around in the office. I’m sure you will see many of your colleagues with their fingers busy on desktop keyboards or mobile keypads sending emails, chatting and exchanging digital information through lots of different applications and tools. Employees are constantly communicating and collaborating with co-workers, business partners, new contacts, friends and family through different applications, devices, and internet connections. 

The reality is, whether at work or in their free time, their digital presence is putting their organization at risk from all types of cyber threats like phishing, business email compromise (BEC), hacking, ransomware, and other cyber perils.

You might think that this scenario doesn’t apply to the average organization, including your own. However, the danger is omnipresent. 79% of workers report that they use digital collaboration tools in a 2021 survey according to Statista. Emails were sent and received 306.4 billion times each day in 2020, and this number is projected to increase through 2025.

Data and the exchange of digital information is what is keeping organizations alive in the interconnected business ecosystem. But everyday employee activity also means that the individual and the organization are exposed to cyber-risks. Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report shows that “threat actors have rapidly increased in sophistication over the past year, using techniques that make them harder to spot”.

When was the last time that you or one of your colleagues received a fake email appearing to come from a business partner or your CEO with a legitimate request but was actually constructed to steal your company’s data or funds? FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reports that in less than 6 years they received complaints totaling $2.1 billion in losses from BEC scams alone.

This example explains why compliance training to gain cybersecurity compliance is an adamant requirement for business operations. But how big of a problem is cyber-threats and employee conduct for organizations?

Even with good IT security tools and processes implemented in your organization, each situation and action performed by an employee are equal to a potential risk, as their behavior may be noncompliant with your IT policy or cybersecurity guidelines. 

No wonder leadership teams are becoming increasingly worried about the dangers of cybersecurity risks. 47% of CEOs are extremely concerned about cyber-threats in 2021, up from 33% in 2020 which makes cyber-threats the second biggest risk according to PwC’s Global CEO Survey.

Employees clicking links they shouldn’t have and other types of misconduct by individuals calls for more and better cybersecurity training, and apparently employees are open to cybersecurity education. 73% of American employees say they expect the employer to educate in cybersecurity. But only 30% of employees say their employer offered training on the dos and don’ts of protecting company and personal digital assets, data and information in another PwC survey in 2020.

The consequences of a cybersecurity breach can be serious for the individual and the organization’s operation, reputation, and finances. The global average cost of a data breach is estimated at $3.86 million.

Keeping the operation intact and free of cyber-threats is vital. Another imperative is proactively building trust and credibility in the organization that improves the company’s resilience and relationships with customers, stakeholders, and employees. While infrastructure and application security are fundamental in preventing cyber-attacks, a cybersecurity compliance framework promoting employee awareness and preparedness is playing a key role in avoiding security breaches and maintaining a safe digital work environment.

73% of American employees say they expect the employer to educate in cybersecurity

When you consider that cyber-threats are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to identify for employees as mentioned in the quote from Microsoft cybersecurity training becomes a must-have. One of the important requirements to engage employees and avoid that they respond to BEC scams, click malicious links, or download apps or computer programs that introduce risk, is to consider the user experience.

Compliance training through ready-made e-learning including cybersecurity training videos is an effective way to increase cybersecurity awareness for employees and strengthens your organization’s first-line defense. These are examples of cybersecurity topics that employees can learn through up-to-date e-learning courses from some of the world’s top providers and eloomi partners:

AwareGO is an eloomi partner producing cool cybersecurity awareness training that is highly engaging for people. “Phishing”, “Social Engineering”, and “Home WiFi” are examples of content titles and situations that often happen to employees. 

Many think that cybersecurity is a dull topic, but these trainings are short and high-quality e-learning courses that are in an ingenious storytelling format that employees can relate to. I have viewed many of these micro-learning courses myself, and honestly, they were very entertaining and memorable.

mybreev has a channel of cybersecurity e-learning modules totaling 250 minutes of interactive and engaging learning including everyday work-life situations. The e-learning courses from this eloomi partner helps employees become knowledgeable and diligent in identifying and managing cybersecurity threats. These are effective training sessions with important topics including some of the new threats that your staff are being exposed to, like “Detect vishing” which focus on voice phishing, “Working with mobile devices”, and “Secure handling of social media”.

Skillsoft is one of eloomi’s e-learning content partners that covers the most topics, including cybersecurity compliance. These e-learning modules, including topics within IT Security Basics and Privacy & Information Security, utilize learner-centric instructional design techniques that creates strong engagement and makes it easy for employees, managers, and specialists to retain the new knowledge.

The e-learning courses include videos and are developed in partnership with industry-leading subject matter experts which ensures that the individual receives up-to-date, relevant, and reliable learning.

Cyber protection requires the organization to implement several focus areas. Cybersecurity compliance needs to be trained by employees ongoing to de-risk cyber threats. It needs to be engaging, match the learning culture you desire, and executed effectively in an up-to-date Learning Management System like eloomi.

See what ready-made cybersecurity training you can assign to your employees quickly to get your first-line defense in top form.