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Security Awareness Training Human Error and Its Impact on Business Technology

Security Awareness Training Human Error and Its Impact on Business Technology

Cyber Security Awareness Training

Human error occurs when an individual performs a task or does something with an unintended outcome and can severely impact the security of your business. 

It’s easy to blame employees as an organization’s weakest link regarding security technology awareness, but without appropriate training, how can employees genuinely know what to watch out for?

An IBM study found that human error accounts for 95% of business security incidents, yet employee security awareness training often ends up on the back burner. Here’s what technology experts learned from a recent survey about Cybersecurity:

  • Cybersecurity training is not a top priority for many organizations.
  • 3% of employees felt their employer provided them with no Cybersecurity training.
  • Only 17.9% of survey respondents felt their employers provided “adequate” cybersecurity training.

With the need for security training, more and more organizations are jumping on the bandwagon, offering security awareness training as part of their services.

Since Cybersecurity incidents are often a result of employee mistakes, it’s apparent that technology alone is not enough to protect an organization. While antivirus (AV) companies may have previously found success in offering their virus protection services alone, the realization that employees are an organization’s weakest link has led many AV vendors to one conclusion: to be successful and provide services that can indeed defend against cybercrime, providing education through security awareness training is critical.

Educating employees on security awareness is crucial to organizations, especially those with sensitive data. Cybercriminals are relentless in their efforts to carry out their attacks, and many organizations are slowly recognizing that these criminals are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts.

In the digital era, criminals have become masterminds at forming social engineering attacks to trick their victims, a scheme that no antivirus can protect against.

In addition, fierce competition and the desire to generate more revenue could be contributing factors. We must not forget that without appropriate training organizations provide; employees cannot effectively act as that first layer of defense.

And, how can we, as business leaders, hold our employees and team members accountable to a standard that’s not been communicated?

One thing we’re sure of is that Security awareness training will help your employees spot malicious attempts by cybercriminals. Still, it is also required to comply with federal and, in some cases, state regulations. A lack of training will open the door for cybercriminals and may result in a breach, which can cause significant fines and penalties and damage an organization’s reputation.

Struggling with human error and protecting your organization? We’re here to help.