EO Johnson Blog

The Weakest Link in your Security

Written by EO Johnson Business Technologies | Sun, Jun 7, 2015

There is a lot riding on your business – your employees count on a stable income, and your customers trust you to protect the information they provide you.  Are you putting that all at risk by skimping on security awareness training?

The problem is real

Cyber-heists are costing millions of dollars and 79 percent of small/medium businesses have no security awareness program in place.  Bad guys aren’t just stealing data – some are purely malicious and want to destroy networks.  Your end user is the weakest link in your IT security, and the bad guys go after them because they are easy to trick with social engineering.

One of the most common techniques bad guys use to get their hands on sensitive information (like passwords and credit card information) is Phishing.  Here they masquerade as trustworthy and simply ask for the information, and Phishing tactics have gotten very sophisticated.

Solution

The only effective way to stop such techniques is to create a “human firewall” where you rely on the ability of your employees to recognize risky situations and act accordingly.  How do you accomplish this?  By implementing security awareness training.

What to look for in security awareness training

  • A pretest of your users prior to the training that simulates a Phishing attack.  This shows you how Phish-prone your organization is.
  • Convenient, online training allowing employees to take it when it fits their schedule.
  • Interesting content that includes case studies, live demonstrations, and short tests to make sure employees retain information.
  • A dashboard that allows management to monitor who has taken the training and who needs to.
  • Another simulated Phish attack after the training to assess its effectiveness and to counsel employees who are still at risk.