There are several important elements that may play a role in training new employees for your organization, and one that's especially relevant to many businesses is ensuring employees are compliant with cybersecurity measures you have in place. Many cybercriminals are looking to exploit vulnerabilities caused by employees who aren't taking proper cybersecurity measures, so protecting from any risk here is of paramount importance.
At JCIT, we're proud to offer a variety of managed IT services and related solutions for all our Salt Lake City clients, including programs to help both business owners and employees understand basic online security and how to maintain it. We've helped many of our clients set up effective cybersecurity programs that their employees can easily follow, and we'll do the same for you. In this two-part blog series, we'll go over some of the most important concepts for setting up this program and ensuring your employees understand and comply with it.
One of the top factors to be constantly considering as you're setting up your employee cybersecurity program is ways to keep employees engaged with the information you're providing. It's a relatively simple concept, but effective engagement can be challenging to pull off, so it's important to take this factor into account from the very beginning of your planning process.
You have a variety of options for engaging employees with the material, and it's effective to utilize a combination of them all. Some standard practices you should always include are one-on-one meetings with managers, email updates, brief presentations by IT staff, and other similar methods. These are all good options to use within your cybersecurity training program, but it's especially important to make sure you keep things engaging for employees through the different forms of contact.
One method we strongly recommend is at least one session of basic training for each employee on simple cybersecurity best practices. These are just a few examples to get you started, but this is an effective way to create awareness around key issues that many employees may not have even considered yet.
Employees should always keep their software up-to-date, including all browsers, plugins, and other applications they use regularly. Many cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities in out-of-date software, so this is one of the most important steps employees can take to protect themselves online.
It's also essential that employees understand not to open attachments or click on links in emails from unknown senders. This is a common way for cybercriminals to install malware on a user's device, and it's one you should teach employees to avoid.
Another quality approach to cybersecurity engagement among employees: Rewarding those who are especially diligent about following best practices. You can easily set up metrics to monitor who demonstrates the most engagement with these training materials, and then find small ways to thank them for their efforts beyond just words of appreciation.
It's also worth considering some kind of incentive program that rewards employees who go above and beyond in helping you maintain strong cybersecurity measures. This could be something like a small bonus or extra paid time off, and it's a great way to show employees that you value their efforts in this area.
For more on how to set up a strong cybersecurity program for your employees, or to learn about any of our business VOIP or outsourced IT services in Salt Lake City, speak to the staff at JCIT today.
