Damaging cybersecurity attacks have become an increasingly regular occurrence in business. If you remember, in 2013, Target Corp. notified 70 million customers that hackers infiltrated their computer systems and had stolen customer’s personal data. In 2016, Yahoo Inc. was impacted when hackers had stolen the account information of 500 million users. In January of this year, a massive ransomware attack hit computer systems across Europe and the United States, and you are sure to see more attacks in the news as time goes on.

In a recent study, “The Evolution of Security Skills,” a report from the Computing Technology Industry Association, a nonprofit trade association, found only 21 percent of businesses completely satisfied with their current level of security. IT security is at the forefront of both nonprofit and for-profit organization’s minds.

Many organizations are incorporating user security training into their onboarding procedures, and hiring consultants to make sure their security policies are up to date. Although this is a good first step, consistently improving and training your staff with current security courses is the best way to steer clear of any security breaches or hacking attempts.

Seth Robinson, a CompTIA senior researcher, has a pulse on the current state of security training and says “What we are seeing companies move toward as they become more intentional and aggressive about cybersecurity is training that is more interactive, possibly customized into job roles and training that can be measured,” he said. “This training is usually delivered online and it might be delivered similarly to other HR training like safety or sexual harassment training.”

Tech Networks is addressing this need from our client base and is working with KnowBe4, the world’s most popular platform for new-school Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing. KnowBe4 focuses on testing and training the end user to make sure the “weakest links” are always on their toes. This new service will focus on helping organizations develop policies and procedures and train the employees in an organization to best prevent security breaches.

Performing simulated phishing attacks on your organization’s current users can justify the case for an increased budget for security testing and training. The cost for not investing in this is much greater than suffering a ransomware or spear-phishing attack.

Tech Networks of Boston offers free simulated phishing attacks to see where your company stands in terms of it’s users security awareness. We’d like to invite you to contact us for a free phishing test and see how your company scores.

Through the earlier above ransomware examples and the new attacks yet to come, the need for security training is definitely here and now.