10 Benefits of Security Awareness Program

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 It’s a jungle out there. 1990’s pop culture references to mystical “cyberspace” fell to the wayside as internet technology became ubiquitous and necessary for contemporary life. That cyber-wilderness grows by 1.7 MB per second per individual human being on Earth. The internet ecosystem is now the storehouse of our most treasured and sensitive data assets, and security awareness training is necessary to traverse it safely.

1. Right Here With You

At Edafio Technology Partners, we focus on providing attentive and comprehensive IT services to our community. Starting in Little Rock, with expansions in Rogers and Conway, we’ve partnered with the businesses of Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, and oversees to keep work running reliably, efficiently, and safely.

 Our experienced and certified associates do this by building respectful, cooperative, integral relationships with clients, committing to their success.

2. Keeping You in the Know

Knowledge of rapidly evolving cyber threats is the power to defeat them. Edafio distributes awareness newsletters to inform your team of specific scams, phishing attacks, and threats that are in wide circulation at the current time.

 Additional security education on broader topics is also provided. Once a year, onsite training will coach your team to avoid security pitfalls.

3. Security Awareness Training for Your Needs

Our top-tier associates will analyze the specific security needs of your establishment and develop a training curriculum to prevent violations of industry information protocols. 

 Our associates will teach you how to avoid mistakes that violate HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, and other industry-specific compliance statutes. We’ll instruct on aspects of general security to keep you as well protected as your clients are.

4. The White Hats Ride Into Town

In cybersecurity, a White Hat is an expert that helps the vulnerable defend themselves. Our program includes monthly simulated phishing attacks and other penetration testing procedures. 

 These are tailored to the nature of your business and although they are just a drill, they are based on real attacks that have caused massive damage in the real world. Familiarity with the techniques that hackers use will keep your team vigilant.

5. Consult the Experts

Our team will investigate the security health of your company at the beginning of our partnership and can measure the effectiveness of our methods over time. We provide a monthly touch base to keep you aware of problem areas. 

 At the Quarterly Success Consult, we’ll detail the accomplishments of our combined efforts to improve security.

6. Collateral Damage

Mistakes made in cybersecurity are not the only problem of the organization that exposes itself to attack and the clients who interact with that organization. Some effects ripple out even further. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack created a crippling fuel shortage on the East Coast of the United States. Within a week of the attack, 87% of Washington D.C. gas stations had no fuel left to sell.

 The personal and financial data required to transact is precious and entrusted to businesses with faith that it will be protected. 7-10% of American adults are victims of identity fraud every year. Those victims are forced to undergo all manner of hardship in restoring their lives and are often unable to recoup losses. The downstream human cost is not just a tragedy; it’s a preventable tragedy.

7. Potent Security Is Potent Medicine

For any organization in the medical field, HIPAA violations prompt the ringing of a death knell heard throughout the land. Fines are assigned per violation, and even amateur cyberattacks will compromise the data of every patient involved. 

 Medical data is of the most personal sort, and “First, do no harm” applies to protecting patients’ psychological and social health as much as it applies to physical health.

8. Investment in Company Health

When Edafio joins your team, we work side-by-side in security awareness training. To be safe online is not just to be careful, but to treat security with the seriousness it deserves because it affects every member of the association. 

 When that consideration of the gravity of mistakes is taken, company-wide cohesion increases. Every individual is reminded that their actions are part of the whole.

9. The Human Factor

93% of IT professionals agree that people need to work alongside security technology to prevent harm. In one German university study, participants were secretly sent dummy phishing emails and Facebook messages from fictitious peers. Of the 1700 people tested, 56% clicked the suspicious email link. 40% clicked on Facebook. 78% of the members of the groups successfully duped reported knowing the dangers of clicking links from unknown senders.

 The truly bone-chilling revelation of the experiment is that less than half of those that fell into the trap later admitted to (or remembered) clicking on the link. Simple human curiosity overpowered the need for safety. That curiosity is likely valuable to your organization, but much more so when honed to the complex demands of productive tasks. Efficient and ongoing cybersecurity training can reduce those misdirections of inquisitiveness by 68%-80%.

10. The Paradigm Shift

COVID-19 brought immense changes to the nature of how people do their work. In less than a year, almost every job that could be moved to an online format did so. Less than 3.6% of the American workforce performed their duties remotely before the start of the pandemic. Even with the safety landscape shifting once again, many people are choosing to continue with remote work.

 Hackers have turned their attention to the increased vulnerabilities that remote work creates. When surveyed, 54% of IT professionals reported their belief that remote workers come with an increased security risk. With company communication rendered entirely digital, phishing is a more significant threat than ever before.

 While 48% of businesses consider themselves well prepared for an attack, 77% don’t have a protocol to handle threats before and after they arise. Cybersecurity is a complex and sometimes terrifying concern that requires dedicated, invested expert partners, allowing you to avoid the time and strain your business needs in numerous other areas. 

Contact Edafio to help watch your back and train your associates in surviving the new wilderness.

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