Building A Cyber Aware Work Culture
When you’re looking to build your business’ cyber resilience now and into the future, a cyber aware work culture is a critical piece of the puzzle. With 90% of cyber attacks made possible by human error, equipping your team with right values and knowledge is critical. This approach not only empowers your staff but allows them to contribute to your cyber security defences in the face of threats that continue to become more sophisticated.
What is a Cyber Aware Work Culture?
This culture puts cyber security at the centre of your business, prioritising proactive awareness of risks and strategies that reduce the likelihood of human error. Alongside keeping your team educated, this should aim to foster healthy attitudes and beliefs that support their commitment to implementing best practices.
Today, our team has put together five ways building a cyber aware work culture will benefit your business, from safeguarding your reputation to building your defences online, empowering your staff, and more.
5 Reasons You Should Build a Cyber Aware Work Culture
- Empower and upskill your team
By creating a workplace that values cyber security your team can help to better defend your business against threats – but the benefits don’t end there. These are skills that translate into their personal lives, ensuring they can protect themselves and their family at home as well.
- You can safeguard your business’ reputation
Building a cyber aware work culture reduces your cyber security risks. This is essential as successful attacks take a serious toll on businesses, compromising customer trust and loyalty, and attracting negative publicity that affects your reputation now and into the future. This can lead to losing customers, partnerships, opportunities, and even employees.
- Avoid downtime and save money
In 2022 cyber crime cost Australian small businesses $46,000 and medium businesses $97,200. Proactively building a cyber aware work culture, which should include regular User Awareness Training, is essential to reduce the risk of a successful cyber attack and the resultant costs. This will also minimise downtime, helping you to maintain everyday operations, productivity, and positive client relationships.
- Achieve and maintain compliance
Keeping your team educated, committed to preserving high levels of cyber hygiene, and aware of regulations and standards supports your business to achieve and maintain compliance, effectively streamlining the process.
- Support remote workers
With less security infrastructure in place, working outside of the office typically leaves your staff more vulnerable in the face of cyber threats. A cyber aware work culture ensures they understand their responsibilities, and have the knowledge and skills to better protect business and customer data and avoid common threats including phishing and social engineering. This culture ensures values extend beyond the office and encompass your entire workforce.
The Importance of User Awareness Training
User Awareness Training is an essential step to building your business’ cyber aware work culture, giving your staff the skills to spot and avoid threats online and a clear understanding of what to do when these threats are encountered. Effective training should be comprehensive, covering a range of topics from email security through to implementing best practices for password security and remote working, and more. It’s also important to remember that ongoing training is essential to stay up to date with the latest cyber threats and risks that are continuously evolving and becoming more complex.
How Impact ICT Can Help
At Impact ICT, we’re committed to increasing our customers’ cyber resilience. If you’re ready to build a cyber aware work culture and keep these values at the heart of your business, our friendly team are ready to help! Get in touch with us today to learn more about we can support your business and staff with effective User Awareness Training.
