Avid readers of our blog will have seen our cyber security news round-ups dominated this year by incidents including ransomware. Indeed, major incidents are occurring on a weekly basis, with a rise in phishing, data breaches and more. Those readers will have little doubt as to the importance of cyber security awareness, and today we aim to reinforce this.
What is cyber security awareness?
Simply put, it is knowing what needs to be done to protect your information assets and then taking steps towards that objective. In an organisation, you must educate employees on cyber threats so that they know what impact cyber-attacks can have. If you succeed in this, you will have a team that is cyber security aware.
Top Tip: Create a culture of awareness
The latter point above is crucial if you are to achieve a good level of cyber resilience. Whilst it will not guarantee a complete lack of incidents, it will help to limit the risk of data breaches or data theft. There are some best practice tips further down but above all, make sure you implement a robust security framework.
Why is cyber security awareness important?
A question we put to CRIBB’s Patrick Carolan: “Cyber security as a topic is bigger now than it has ever been. We are seeing cyber-attacks in the news headlines on a weekly basis, against very high-profile targets. If you haven’t thought about mitigating cyber risks before, you must do so now.”
Indeed, some of the most damaging cyber-attacks in 2020 came against SolarWinds, Twitter, Marriott, MGM Resorts and Zoom. It is no longer safe to assume that you will not be a target. Carolan recommends a proactive stance: “If anything, you should assume that you will be a target. Don’t wait for something to happen, speak to experts and start building your defences up today.”
Cyber security awareness best practices
- Cultivate a culture of awareness
- Implement a cyber security framework
- Keep policies up-to-date
- Educate and train employees regularly
- Deploy robust security measures (for example, MFA or 2FA)
Next week we will offer some cyber security awareness tips. In the near future, we will then turn our attention towards the benefits of cyber security awareness training. By that point, we are sure that there will be few who do not fully appreciate the importance of cyber security awareness.
As part of theICEway ecosystem, CRIBB Cyber Security provides support and guidance for clients in cruise, travel and healthcare. We are an official certification body, and are fully accredited to provide security services including penetration testing and vulnerability scanning.