Page 17 - Cyber Warnings

Why Cybersecurity Training Isn’t Just for IT Professionals

By Marc Saldana, Cyber Defense Solutions LLC

As the realm of cybersecurity continues to evolve at a rapid pace, industry leaders are
constantly challenged to stay ahead of cyber threats. Cybercrime, cyber espionage and cyber
terrorism by nations, criminal groups and script-kiddies are at record-high levels, and show no
sign of decreasing any time soon.

As cyber threats posed against government agencies, industry, internet-connected
infrastructure and personal data grow, so does the need for highly-trained cybersecurity
professionals and trained employees across all levels.

In a new era of social and online activity, cybersecurity training has seen tremendous growth.
Why? Because it takes an arsenal of skilled professionals at every level of an organization to
protect sensitive data. Cybersecurity training and certification are key to understanding the ever-
changing threat landscape, staying ahead of the technology curve and learning how to quickly
detect and mitigate threats.

Cybersecurity Training for All Employees, at All Levels
Many organizations believe that cybersecurity training is only valuable to those tasked with
protecting the network. However, cybersecurity training for all employees—from the mail room
to the boardroom—is essential. Year after year, the loss of proprietary company technical data
and classified government information continues to increase, mainly because people are the
weakest link in cybersecurity.

Unknowingly, employees can cause the greatest damage to a network. Cybersecurity training
educates employees against threats such as clicking on links within phishing emails, visiting
suspect websites and downloading or installing non-approved software that can compromise a
network and data.

While phishing scams have been around for years, they have become quite sophisticated and
hard to detect. In fact, clicking on phishing emails continues to be the number one way networks
are infected, data is stolen and network equipment (computers, laptops, servers, etc.) are
damaged. Training employees on the warning signs of a phishing scam, even if the email
appears to be from a trusted source, can help to prevent real damage and exposure of sensitive
data.

While the case for basic cybersecurity training for all levels of employees in an organization is
self-evident, often times, “C” level executive training is a low priority. However, executives are
some of the biggest targets of advanced cyber threat actors. All too often, CEOs, CISOs and
COOs do not truly understand the real risks and vulnerabilities posed against their data,
networks and computing resources from the most experienced threat actors.

17 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2016 Edition
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