Cybersecurity and awareness training programs are no longer a simple compliance standard. Security training is fundamental to protecting the financial institutions’ operations, customers, and reputation. The continuing increase in data breaches and ransomware attacks requires financial institutions to invest more in their security budgets and programs. According to Business Insider, most financial institutions plan to increase their security budgets up to 30% in 2022. In addition, a recent IBM report states that data breaches of financial institutions are the costliest of any industry, at an average cost of $5.72 million per breach.
Costly and debilitating cyber incidents are increasingly driven by organized criminals and state-sponsored actors operating with domestic impunity, adopting emerging technology and digital customer interaction points, remote employees, and cloud-based data storage and workflows. Amid all these recent changes, the one constant has been that a vast majority of cyberattacks rely on the manipulation and deception of your employees.
The Challenge: Employee Understanding of Cybersecurity
The FBI’s most recent Internet Crime Report ;reported social engineering attacks as the most common cybercrime relying on over 320,000 various forms of attack. Cybercriminals target your employees to expose credentials and protected data. Far too many organizations leave their employees unequipped with the right skills to defend their organization. For this reason, businesses across all industries are turning to phishing tests and security awareness training, specifically Proactive Defense Programs.
The Solution: Train Employees in Cybersecurity Best Practices
Proactive Defense Programs empower employees with the proper skills to identify and report suspicious activity. They provide the training to help employees identify sophisticated suspicious activity, test their abilities with realistic simulations, and provide the context to help employees understand the risks and their obligations. You are responsible for setting up your employees for success and equipping them as your front line of defense.
Below are three ways to build a proactive security culture for your employees and organization:
Reward and recognize employees for their security efforts
Encourage security awareness within every department, including executives and the board, not just IT
Implement a Proactive Defense Program
Shifting from Reactive to Proactive
Employee training in cybersecurity basics is critical to robust and effective defense for any organization. A solid Proactive Cybersecurity Defense Program drives awareness within every department and instills knowledge and confidence in employees to report and recognize threats when they are presented. The goal is to teach employees how to respond appropriately and escalate security incidents, reducing an organization’s risk of data breaches. When training is an ongoing activity, the security culture grows significantly. Continuous training also ensures your organization complies with industry regulations, sets policies, and tracks high-risk users who fail attack campaigns.
Taking a proactive approach and gaining control of your security culture IT landscape is a significant step. It will help mitigate organizations from the risk of data breaches and other forms of cyberattacks.
