Regularly educating and refreshing cybersecurity awareness training is key to a Safer Internet
This year, Safer Internet Day falls 8th February 2022, and is celebrated globally to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people, and to improve the conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.
With people working remotely, using the internet safely is not just important for young people, but for organisations too.
According to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Cisco, more than half of firms believe their exposure to attack has increased due to working from home arrangements.
The findings revealed that one in 10 had been the victim of a cyber attack during the last year, increasing to more than one in seven for firms with more than 50 employees.
“Promoting online safety is not just a concern for young people – it’s a concern for organisations whose employees use the internet too. According to a survey by Markel Direct, 51% of SMEs experience a cybersecurity breach. The survey found the most common cybersecurity attacks were malware/virus related (24%), followed by a data breach (16%) and a phishing attack (15%).
“While IT and security teams are doing all they can to protect the organisational infrastructure with security tools and disaster recovery solutions, they can only do so much without the support of well-informed employees. With employees being the organisation’s primary line of defence, educating them with information security practices, good password hygiene and the ability to spot phishing attacks is critical.
“Regularly educating and refreshing cybersecurity awareness training is key in safeguarding both an employee’s data and the organisational data. With the daily use of social media, employees must also understand how to protect confidential information and not reveal any data on this medium. Employee awareness is not just for their benefit, but it allows them to remain compliant with the company’s code of conduct, as well as adhere to data protection regulations such as GDPR.”
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