In today’s world, everything is digital, but anything digital has a cybersecurity threat lingering on its head at all times. Cybersecurity awareness has become an important thing to know if you use mobile/ computers/tablets. To emphasise the issue, every October is observed as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Backed by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Cybersecurity Month encourages people to understand their role in protecting their organisation from cybersecurity threats. So in this blog, we will tell you what is cybersecurity and why it is important.
Table of Contents
What is Cybersecurity Awareness
In layman’s terms, cybersecurity awareness means being mindful of cybersecurity threats in day-to-day life. Being aware of the dangers of online browsing, email checking is the top-most priority of cybersecurity awareness. If you’re a businessman, you should understand the essential role cybersecurity plays in the safekeeping of your business.
In an organisation, not everybody knows what cybersecurity is but spreading cybersecurity awareness through workshops keeps every employee and the company safe and their data private. Role-based training has proved to be very effective in such scenarios. The month of October has been assigned as the cybersecurity awareness month because people need to know just how important cybersecurity awareness is.
Why Is Cybersecurity Awareness Important
Cybersecurity awareness is important because it helps you prevent any cybersecurity incidents, which can be quite hefty at times. With more and more cyber security threats, people must be aware of the things that they can do to prevent any attacks.
According to the data, 94% of malware threats in 2021 came through emails and cyber attackers find new ways to breach your security, which makes cybersecurity awareness more important than ever.
The most common form of cyber attack is phishing emails, these emails can leak your information to the attacker which can lead to a cyber threat. More often than not, these phishing emails ask for your personal information like username and password. So if you receive any such email, as a rule of thumb, you should not entertain it- especially if it’s from an unknown source.
So training your employees in cybersecurity is very important. If you’re looking at the financial side and think that the cost of training your employees is not worth it, the reality is that the cost you’ll have to pay if you become a victim of a cyber threat is very high. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach is $4.2 million or ₹33.6 crore. This is why it is important to teach your employees cybersecurity awareness. By doing so, you can significantly decrease the possibility of a cybersecurity breach.
How Do You Get Started
The most important part of cybersecurity awareness is to spread it through your staff. To do that, you can organise workshops to start with. The thing about cybersecurity awareness training is that you can mould it in a way that is the most beneficial to your company. You can find many low-cost programs and even free programs and seminars easily on YouTube. If you do not trust the sources from YouTube, every year CISA creates free cybersecurity training kits that serve this very purpose. You can always use this kit to make sure that your cybersecurity awareness is up to the mark. On top of that, you should always use the best antiviruses to make sure no malware gets into your system.
Once everyone has cybersecurity awareness, all you have to do is ask your employees to keep cybersecurity as their top priority. You can arrange a simple training module or send newsletters monthly to make sure that your employees don’t forget about cybersecurity.
Types Of Cyber Security Threat
There are many types of security threats on the internet today, and some of them are as follows:
- DoS or DDoS Attack– Denial-of-service of DoS are the threat in which your antivirus stops working and then it overwhelms the files on your computer to lock the files. DDoS attack is when a single attacker controls more than 1 computer at the same time.
- Phishing Attacks- A phishing attack occurs when you receive an email from an unknown source disguised as a trusted and legitimate source to steal your information from you. If any email asks about your details chances are that the particular email is a phishing email.
- Ransomware- This might be the most annoying and heartbreaking attack a hacker can’t commit. With ransomware, your computer is just fine and it will run smoothly but all of your files will be locked and ready to be exploited.
- URL Interpretation– This is another quite common attack, in this attack, the attacker prepares a file that has a crooked link which then reveals your information to the attacker.
- MITM Attacks– Man-in-the-middle attack is another popular threat. In this method, the attacker places themselves between 2 people and takes the information that is being transmitted between them.
The only way to keep yourself safe from such cyber security threats is to groom your workplace in cybersecurity awareness.
Final Thoughts
Today, when pretty much everything is digital, you need to have cybersecurity awareness so that you can keep yourself and your data safe from attackers.
