Cyber security: three ways to protect your organisation and empower your employees with targeted upskilling
Cyber-attacks are on the rise and there aren’t enough cyber security professionals to go around. To address and alleviate future disruptions, organisations must focus on embedding a culture of compliance by putting systems and adaptable training in place to protect their business, employees and customers. Here are three ways to keep your organisation secure through targeted, skills-based upskilling.
As the workplace becomes increasingly digital, organisations must, now more than ever, ensure that they are cyber-secure. This is no easy feat, as having more people working online and accessing an organisation’s data means there is an increased potential for risk due to human error. However, with 2.72 million unfilled cyber security positions across the globe, the cyber security workforce needs to grow by 65% to effectively protect organisations.
In light of these persisting skills gaps, organisations need to take every available measure to protect themselves. Check Point Research reported a 38% increase in cyber-attacks across the globe in 2022, demonstrating that the need for employees to be switched on to the dangers of the digital world is growing. Moreover, Verizon’s 2022 Data Breaches Investigations Report found that 82% of data breaches involved a human element. This includes incidents in which employees exposed information directly or made a mistake that allowed cyber criminals to access the organisation’s systems.
With human error playing a substantial part in exposing organisations to risk in the digital space, making sure people are aware of the risks they are facing and interacting with every day is vital. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 found that the forms of data breach that caused the most expense to organisations were business email compromise scams and phishing scams – both of which result from skills-based errors. While it can be difficult to fill cyber security roles given the current digital skills gaps, there still are ways for organisations to manage the threats they face.
Skill-centric cyber security learning to protect your organisation and empower your employees.
With IBM’s 2021 report showing that the two most financially detrimental types of data breaches were forms of email scams, every employee that works with a computer needs to be equipped with the skill and knowledge required to spot a potential threat. Organisations should be mindful of their current employees and their role in keeping the organisation secure. With that in mind, deploying targeted upskilling could be an effective solution. Here are three ways that cyber security upskilling could help your organisation:
1. Boosts skills without disrupting work.
Skills-based learning doesn’t have to involve large chunks of time away from an employee’s workday. Targeted micro-learning can be incorporated into the flow of work, enabling employees to be upskilled without impacting productivity. Breaking up learning into small, bitesize pieces also helps manage cognitive load and makes learning more effective!
2. Keeps employees happy and engaged.
There are benefits to upskilling initiatives beyond boosting skills and knowledge. Increasing amounts of the workforce expect continuous opportunities for growth from their employers, and rightly so. Implementing upskilling initiatives demonstrates to employees that they are cared for and helps to maintain positivity and engagement in the workplace. With lifelong learning continuing to be a growing trend in the L&D space, what better opportunity to boost your organisation’s cyber security at the same time.
3. Helps to make all employees switched on to cyber security.
What’s better than a handful of cyber security specialists? A whole community of them! While upskilling modules are no replacement for having some tech whizzes around to address integral cyber security problems, getting every single employee up to speed will help to tackle the biggest cause of breaches to cyber security – human error.
Keeping up with the pace of change in the world of tech is already a challenge. This is doubly true when considering the perils and pitfalls that come with working in the digital age. The perpetrators of cyber attacks aren’t becoming any less proficient, so now is the time to make sure we are armed with the knowledge and know-how to keep our organisations safe. Target upskilling may just be the solution we need to foster a community of cyber safety and protect ourselves from cyber threats.
If this sparked your interest…
Now that you’ve identified how upskilling can be used to help mitigate threats to cyber security faced by your organisation, why not take the next step and explore our Cyber Security Bundle designed to deliver high-impact content in short form learning. From introductory cyber security modules to highlighting protection strategies for your organisation, we’ve got you covered.
Our content is based on expert research and advice derived from the likes of Kogan Page, Pearson Education and the Financial Times.
Our Learning Consultants will support you to map your learner skills pathways and the areas that are of greatest priority to your team. They can also provide services to help raise engagement and awareness within your workforce.