According to a Radware report, 69% of companies were afflicted with ransomware attacks this year alone, which brings large fiscal and legal repercussions. Besides the ransom payment, which we recommend you not pay, the work loss and response time costs more than $900,000 on average. That’s not including the cleanup during the aftermath. In fact, 41% of executives that had a cybersecurity breach said their organization dealt with legal action from customers and 34% experienced brand reputation loss. In order to keep a cyberattack from scoring on your organization, you’re going to need to train a good defense.
Attacks via email, especially those using phishing or other social engineering techniques, are still prevalent and effective in the corporate world. According to a study by Barracuda Networks, in the last year alone, 87% of businesses have experienced at least one attempt of a cyberattack with e-mail as the primary vehicle. Amazingly, phishing and other social engineering schemes are still successful. Since these attacks often go undetected by email security solutions, users stand as the last line of defense. Email based attacks often appear legitimate, so unless the users that have received such attacks know what to be wary of, there’s a strong likelihood of users inviting criminals into your system. The same Barracuda Network study found 84% of respondents blaming bad employee behavior for these types of breaches.
So, how does one keep their organization secure from such camouflaged threats? Knowledge. Just like in G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle. An educated and routinely trained workforce is the best way to combat schemes targeting them. Now, not all employees will learn the same way. Some may be able to soak in all the info they need from one lecture while others may need a bit more time to digest the curriculum. The only thing that needs to be the same for all of them is continuous reinforcement of their training through unscheduled simulations and more. If all goes well, a culture of security conscientiousness will be instilled within the company, creating a defense as strong as Croatia’s during the group stage of this World Cup.
For more tips, like using a DNS protection solution, take our cybersecurity quiz.
