A safer IT environment starts with cyber security awareness among businesses, enterprises and their employees. Many businesses today either lack such awareness entirely or are at the beginning of their journey and are looking for ways to improve their current security configurations. According to a Cyber Trendscape 2020 report, only 49% of CISOs that participated in the study reported that they are fully ready for a data breach or a cyber-attack. There is a long road ahead to get businesses and enterprises to be aware and take the right step towards securing their IT environments.
Back to basics: What exactly is cyber security awareness?
Essentially, the end goal is to make sure that everyone understands the potential cyber threats and risks. Everyone in the organization understands the potential of such threats and have the knowledge to help prevent cyberattacks. Cybersecurity entails not only investing in the vital technologies like setting up firewalls, cybersecurity defence systems and implementing sophisticated protocols but also develop robust control over the security processes and raise awareness of the risks involved to support that. It’s essential to establish a culture within your organization where people recognize their online behaviour that might cause or prevent potential data breaches. Security should not be solely the ‘job’ of the IT team or service provider, but a responsibility of every individual within the organisation. As businesses and organisations use more and more online services, a strong security culture should be embraced too.
Traditional approach to cyber security awareness
Traditionally, cybersecurity awareness has been the responsibility of one team. Often, employees get occasional communication or training on cybersecurity and threats that they might fall for. Reminding people about cybersecurity every once in a while, is not enough to minimize the effects.
Modern approach to cybersecurity awareness
Today, it is impossible to neglect cybersecurity awareness. This means that the topic should be constantly on the agenda and awareness should be created on a daily basis. Leadership support and the involvement of all employees is essential. A top-down approach will ensure that the approvals for various processes and the funds for the tasks involved are streamlined. The main obstacles to creating an influential security culture – a lack of resources can be overcome.
Cyber Risk & IoT Security
Cyber security has become one of the most important areas of the Internet of Things (IoT). New cybersecurity technologies and tools provide potential for better IoT security management, however, there is a lack of effective IoT cyber risk management frameworks.
The risk management framework starts with the IoT cyber ecosystem. After analysis of the ecosystem elements, an organization needs to identify and understand the dynamics and the roles of its stakeholders. The IoT ecosystem needs to be periodically or continuously monitored and the environment needs to be evaluated for potential risks. The IoT cyber risk assessment identifies the IoT assets and services that impact the security. The cybersecurity technologies can be developed, monitoring and control activities are conducted, and continuous improvement activities are performed.
You need to create an in-depth plan with a systematic approach to spread awareness about cybersecurity within your organization.
Plan all your activities
Prepare a foundation plan and outline all your intended activities around it. It’s essential to tailor the program to meet the specific requirements of your organization. Think about the entire network, IoT devices, external access and the employees and stakeholders who will be using this new process.
Create policies and processes
Create processes from a technical and implementation point of view. The processes should be simple to understand and implement. Document all the policies and processes and make them readily available for everyone to refer to.
Define how you will measure success
Training and developing awareness among the employees to behave responsibly while accessing critical information via your organization’s network is important. One example it sot use phishing simulations and check employee reactions. Decide your measurables for success with the results of these simulations.
Partner with the experts
It is an essential step towards fool proofing your organization’s cyber security. Companies like ECS offer cyber security services in India and have years of experience implementing a culture of awareness and processes within the organization. If you do not wisht o hire internal resources, hiring specialists to do the job is the best option.
Your employees are the most important part of the cyber security awareness program. Make sure that they understand why information security awareness is viral for your organization.
This cyber security awareness month, let us engage all employees and stakeholders in learning about the potential threats and ways in which they can be avoided. There are a number of companies that offer cyber security services in India. They are experts in implementing a complete process for your organization. If you would like to talk to our experts at ECS, just drop a line to us at sales@ecscorporation.com and our specialists will be happy to assist you.
