The importance of cybersecurity awareness month for businesses to engage in with their employees.

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Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 – what is it? And why should you care?

  • 95% of cyber security vulnerabilities are due to human error
  • Cybersecurity awareness month is here to educate staff members and customers about how to stay safe online

Do you use ‘12345’ or ‘password’ as your password? Or have you continued to use the same software version that you installed three years ago? If any of these apply to you, there has never been a better moment to fix this habit, especially during cybersecurity awareness month.

What is cybersecurity awareness month?

Cybersecurity awareness month falls on every October to promote understanding of digital security and equip everyone to protect their personal data against online crimes. The goal of the month is to develop resources and messaging that businesses can use to educate their staff members and customers about how to stay safe online.

In the APAC region just last year, one-quarter of all cyberattacks in the globe occurred with a sharp increase in phishing, ransomware, and denial-of-service incidents that affected employees at all levels. We can’t ignore the human aspect as a critical component in an organization’s entire cybersecurity architecture, even though these can be attributed to the increasing sophistication of modern-day attacks.

A research by IBM found that 95% of cyber security vulnerabilities are due to human error. In other words, 19 out of 20 cyberattacks might not have happened at all if human error could be completely eradicated.

The region is experiencing an increase in cyberattacks, which calls for a stronger focus on understanding the human risk. Regardless of how advanced the organization’s tools and technologies are, the human factor can make or break its cybersecurity capabilities.

The human element is simply one aspect of the problem, though. Cybercrimes in general continue to advance in sophistication.

The hackers are now skilled and can launch an attack from any country. They focus on the victim’s weaknesses and employ a number of attack vectors to undermine or bypass the victim’s defenses. Cybercriminals have unfair advantages in these types of attacks and can go undetected for a very long period, if not forever. Furthermore, it is not just one attacker that is doing this. Instead, a number of them are attacking an infrastructure from different angles.

Furthermore, cybercrimes are automated, and they prey on undisclosed vulnerabilities that organizations neglected to patch. On the dark forum, everything an attacker needs to launch an attack is easily accessible.

Cybercriminals now have substantially more tools at their disposal to deceive users and build convincing fake websites that tempt them to log into. Hence, there is an important need for everyone to be cyber aware.

How to start being cyber aware?

Attacks have increased because of the rapid digitization that many businesses have undergone lately. Adding human error to that fire, you are bound to face crisis. But that doesn’t necessarily imply that there isn’t a solution. Here are some things you can do to improve better online behavior among your employees.

Zero-trust

No matter how many security barriers a company puts in place, as soon as a careless user clicks on a malicious link or attachment, cybercriminals are able to infiltrate the system. In fact, it’s the reason ransomware and phishing are so harmful.

However, with zero trust, only those who need network access are allowed to gain access. Using patterns based on identity, time, and device based on contextual awareness, access is allowed to authorized users, and default access is eliminated. Security protocols like user identity verification and access control procedures must now be passed by everything.

Cloud security

Organizations need to adopt a “cloud first” approach more than ever in order to enable their businesses to transition with agility at scale. However, to protect the cloud from cyberattacks, a cutting-edge predictive security strategy must be implemented.

This approach uses an endpoint protection platform that consolidates security in the cloud, makes it simple to detect, investigate, and eliminate threats. Additionally, industries have embraced the use of multifactor authentication to bolster security.

Awareness and user training

Human error can only happen when there is a chance for it to happen, hence it is crucial to minimize these chances as much as possible. However, if end users are unaware of the risks and the proper course of action, they will continue to make mistakes. Therefore, it’s crucial to foster a security culture among employees.

In an environment where security is valued, every choice and action are made with security in mind, and end users actively seek out and address security issues as they arise.

Everyone can make a difference in cybersecurity awareness month. All it takes is to prioritize in building a cyber security culture to ensure safety for a long term.

Why not discuss this in person with some security experts working in this field? This month, numerous countries, including Singapore, will hold cybersecurity events – namely Cyber Security World and Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW).

Head over to their websites to see how you can take the initiative in tackling the most important and pressing challenges in cyber security.