Patching and educating cybersecurity among staff: The way to do it

Cybersecurity related issues are more common nowadays since workflow turned online, and it’s for a good reason. Covid-19 or any pandemic or crisis may arise, but that would be no reason to stop everything we’ve achieved and maintain workflow. It would not be very resourceful, and only panicking won’t make things better. So, working remotely or keeping up with the world is the way to go. In that sense, online working remotely or typical connection for information with online-based platforms are essential. It brings cybersecurity measurements to the frontline, and training employees the correct way is the key.

Some companies tend to send a direct email to employees containing links to test their cybersecurity knowledge. While it may sound practical at first, but sometimes can be misleading. Employees may receive mail concerning a bonus from the company for being efficient and working hard. It can be gratifying to receive a text like that after a good night sleep. While pandemic is growing, so is our mindset. Most of the world is restricted from travel and visiting relatives and friends. It can be pretty frustrating. Also, healthcare bills may add up with others. So, a bonus can be a sign of pressure release and such. While they click on it, it may reveal a message that the company sent it to test cybersecurity knowledge and list who needs more education than others.

The bill or message may include a $5000-$10,000 reward or bonus. But once the message is clicked, employees are intended to trust their companies and co-workers less. This causes less productivity, and further cybersecurity-related tests are researched are not taken. Rewarding workers for their excellent work should be a custom rather than fake message testing awareness. It took place in the Chicago Tribune, and employees backlashed at it.

Social engineering, phishing and spamming are pretty dangerous, and, in the process, employees may leak company data alongside personal information.

Joining cloud collaborations, storage, data centre, sharing knowledge, and meetings require access and control. Any attack on one person may source vulnerabilities, and others may get infected. Those others may be trusted colleagues, friends and even family. No one likes losing data, and if personal information is being ransomed, it could cause the worst personal experience.

However, linking vulnerability testing in a trusted inbox could source other potential risks of employees leaving with immature tasks handled to them or unfinished tasks. Employees want direct training, which could benefit them not only in the workplace but also on a personal level. Mis-clicked employees felt unsafe nonetheless.

Cloud email account takeover, password reuse warning, security monoculture, multilayered email security strategy, mitigating risks, internally generate malicious mails, outbound email monitoring, automating protection, etc., are a few topics and initiatives to get employees rolling with advanced cybersecurity education.

But to warn employees and general people about cybersecurity, initial procedures may include teaching safety measures for mailing, browsing, etc. For mailing, a user or employee should always care for suspicious activity, including the deletion of emails. Users may receive emails from accounts that are already compromised.

There are core areas to control specific measures like email perimeter enforcement. It contains the secure point of every entry and exit of the email platform. Inside the parameter, we can focus on applications including cloud/SaaS-based emails services. And lastly, beyond the parameter, direct access control on the IT and security teams. This is where cyber-crimes mainly develop, and many other attacks are hosted. E.g. spoofed attacks on websites (Online, Compromise and Jewels, 2020).

Eventually, phishing and social engineering attacks should be looked out for company security instead of forwarding fake mails to employee inboxes for better results.