A recent report produced by Malwarebytes into the impact of Coronavirus on businesses, showed that remote workers had caused a breach in 20% of organisations. Your business can have the most expensive, comprehensive cyber security protection there is, but it will only take one of your employees to click on a link in a suspicious email and all those cyber security measures are immediately undermined. Training your teams in the importance of cyber security and in how to identify potential risks is key to strengthening your business resilience against a successful cyber-attack. However, the reality is that many SME’s, charities and the voluntary sector are unable to afford cyber security training for their teams and may not have the resource or sector knowledge to deliver it themselves. You may also think that because you are a small business with just a few employees that you won’t be a target for cyber criminals. However, that’s not the case. There are many examples of small businesses being hit by attacks and they can be so damaging that businesses have folded because of it. In response to this threat, The National Cyber Security Centre has launched a new e-learning package: 'Stay Safe Online: Top Tips for Staff'. It’s totally free, easy-to-use and takes less than 30 minutes to complete. The training introduces why cyber security is important and how attacks happen, and then covers four key areas: • defending yourself against phishing • using strong passwords • securing your devices • reporting incidents ('if in doubt, call it out') The training is primarily aimed at SMEs, charities and the voluntary sector, but can be applied to any organisation, regardless of size or sector. It's been deliberately designed for a non-technical audience (who may have little or no knowledge of cyber security), with tips that complement any existing policies and procedures. How to use the 'Top Tips for Staff' training There are two options for using the e-learning package:
The first (and easiest) way is to direct your staff to the Stay Safe Online: Top Tips for Staff page, which is hosted on the NCSC website. The package is free to use, and includes a short quiz at the end, with links to further reading. No login is required - just click on the link and start learning.
The other way is to integrate the package into your own organisation's training platform. You can do this by downloading the following zip file, which contains the package as a SCORM-compliant file. Once imported into your own LMS system, you can tweak the package to suit your needs (such as setting a pass rate for the quiz) as the content is covered by the Open Government Licence.
This is a free resource open to all businesses and with remote working continuing for the foreseeable future there has never been a better time to help your employees become more cyber aware.