Security Awareness Training in the Columbus

Build a cyber aware workforce to spot cyber threats at an early stage

We currently live in a digital era where almost everything is done online, including business operations. While the internet has provided employees with all kinds of opportunities to stay connected, gain access to a wealth of information, and collaborate, this accessibility also means that they are putting their data at risk. Consequently, most organizations are now supplementing their conventional security awareness training with simulated phishing tests for their first line of defense — their employees. The purpose of these tests is to reveal the risks related to cybercrimes and improve staff awareness.

As more and more people are increasingly becoming reliant on smartphones and other gadgets, it has become necessary to find ways to safeguard against cyberattacks. To secure important business data and information, enterprises in Columbus (USA) and other cities worldwide are joining hands to spread cybersecurity awareness.

EC-Council’s Aware provides phishing, SMiShing, and vishing simulations, all in a single revolutionary platform integrated with e-Learning and gamification modules on a learning management system (LMS) to help prepare your business against cyberattacks.

What Is Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training prepares members of an organization — employees, contractors, temps, and anyone else who completes authorized functions online for an organization — with the necessary information to defend themselves and secure their organization’s assets from damage or loss.

Unfortunately, several cybersecurity experts have a narrow perspective on security awareness training and its implications for their organizations. This is quite understandable, considering that the field of information security also has an equally limited explanation of it as well. Nevertheless, since employees are a critical aspect of the organization’s attack surface, ensuring they are equipped to protect themselves and the organization from internal and external threats is a crucial element of a sound security awareness plan.

Security-Awareness-training

Thankfully, cybersecurity is now a crucial part of the organizational continuity plan. Gone are the days when security was someone else’s problem. Now, cyberattacks are targeted at every unsuspecting individual and department. Not surprisingly, workplace security awareness training programs have become a part of organizational culture just as staff lunch coupons have!

A sound cybersecurity awareness training should not just begin and close with business mandates. It should start with inspirations, enablement, and, most of all, personal connection. Moreover, security awareness training strategies should ensure that employees meet and comply with all the available regulatory requirements, including PCI, FISMA, NIST, ISO, HIPAA, and Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements.

A Brief History of Security Awareness

It comes as no surprise that the history of cybersecurity can be traced back to the appearance of the internet. Ever since the worldwide web began to percolate into mainstream society, cybercriminals have been coming up with innovative ways to take advantage of this.

One of the first incidents of hacking took place in the early 1980s when a group of computer hackers known as the 414s (named after their Milwaukee area code) were arrested for breaking into more than 60 computer networks. These include the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

As hacking became increasingly challenging during this period, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was created to punish those who were caught victimizing computer systems. By the late 1980s, a unit called the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) was formed under the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to investigate the growing volume of hacking on computer networks.

Towards the end of the 1980s, Robert Morris released the historic Internet worm, which caused 10% of the internet to shut down (at the time). It was also possibly the first denial-of-service (DoS) attack ever to appear on the internet.

Though hacking from the 1980s was, for the most part, carried out by amateurs and hacking students, cybercrime took a more serious turn as the 1990s rolled by. By this time, cybercrime had not only increased in sophistication but notoriety. Hackers started to target government agencies and substantial corporate databases, such as Yahoo!, eBay, and Amazon.

From the late 1990s to the beginning of the millennium, viruses, such as Melissa and ILOVEYOU, started making headlines for infecting more than 10 million personal computers and causing the failure of email systems around the world. These threats inevitably led to the development of antivirus technology and the growing importance of security awareness for computer users.

Why Do You Need Security Awareness Training?

The Columbus security hearings after 9/11 and the resulting activities that followed in the subsequent years highlight how human senses improve in the aftermath of an incident. The same goes for an information security staff program. It is important to note that awareness will be heightened after an event, but it will be short-lived without fortifications. This is why continuous security training is required.

Security plans and policies no doubt look good on paper. However, making them be of any benefit to the organization requires that you apply them effectively. Part of that application is the training stage that should be a core aspect of any effective incident response plan or security and risk management plan.

How Effective Is Security Awareness Training?

Rob Kraus indicated that random security training within organizational environments leads to a 10% to 15% decrease in the probability of an effective cyberattack. Similarly, being consistent with security awareness training can lessen cybercrimes and their impacts to about 40% to 50%.

Many employees are unaware of the critical risk factors associated with information security and privacy. Since security is everyone’s business, security awareness training helps to bring everyone within the organization to the same page, protects both human and physical resources, and lessens incidents and the risks associated with cyberattacks.

How Can Security Awareness Be Improved?

Your security awareness consultant’s efforts will be ineffective if treated like a mere box that must be ticked, particularly if you fail to review your training modules constantly. Therefore, an effective cybersecurity awareness information plan must be fun and not stringent, and it must be backed up by the executive and management board. It must be targeted at improving user behavior and be interactive in a way that necessitates feedback from all users. It should also be diverse in such a way that it penetrates the totality of the corporation with security awareness training materials, including email tips, posters, newsletters, and other regularly distributed communication materials.

Other ways to improve your security awareness training include:

  • Being flexible with your corporate culture.
  • Avoid punishing mistakes for clicks on phishing and spear phishing attempts.
  • Preparing phishing simulations at random intervals.
  • Frequently training staff and constantly reviewing training materials.
  • Ensuring that your security awareness training includes everything that is relevant to the security of your organization.
  • Customizing trainings to the right people and at the right time.
  • Look at security awareness training from the standpoint of behavioral change instead of theoretical pursuits and compliance requirements.

Types of Security Solutions by EC-Council’s Aware

Aware combines simulated phishing attacks with set-and-go training modules, improving awareness, altering user behavior, and reducing the risk associated with social engineering attacks.

Phishing

Phishing has been going on for many years now, yet many users continue to fall prey to tactics that bait victims into revealing their personal information. There is a reason why this type of cyber threat is so prevalent and dangerous: besides being relatively inexpensive, it is extremely easy to execute.

Identifying an email scam is not always a straightforward process. This is where Aware comes in. Our phishing simulations mimic real-life attack scenarios that teach your employees to spot phishing scams and avoid the hefty cost of a data breach.

Phishing

SMiShing or SMS Phishing Simulation

SMiShing

As texting is one of the most common methods of communication for many users, this inevitably makes it an irresistible target for many cybercriminals. SMiShing has become one of the main tools in a scammer’s arsenal, partly because it is so easy to wield and requires little technical knowledge.

SMiShing typically follows the usual phishing route. Each text contains a link that directs the target to a website and asks them to fill in their details or prompts them to download malware onto their system. However, compared to a standard phishing attack, the success rates are higher with a SMiShing attack because users are not conditioned to receive spam on their mobile phones.

Vishing or Voice Phishing Simulation

Vishing often begins where phishing ends. For instance, you click on a link for an advertisement that relates to your interest. The link, which hides embedded malware, triggers a lock-up component that only a helpful “technical” person can help you with. So, you call the number you see and spend some money to remediate the problem. Little did you know, it was all just part of the scam, and the company that you just called was the culprit that created this problem in the first place.

Vishing

CheckAPhish and CheckAPhish+ Phishing Tool

CheckAPhish

Our phishing reporting tool, known as CheckAPhish, helps you gain visibility into your organization’s risk behavior and measures the overall risk levels across your user groups. You will also have different types of reports at your disposal.

CheckAPhish+ is an advanced version of CheckAPhish and is the latest addition to Aware’s roster of services, with innovative features and added advantages such as one-view scanning and deletion of suspicious emails. The software is specially designed for all corporate houses, making it a must for corporates who are serious about phishing attacks and are fighting against cybercrime.

Top 12 Key Features of EC-Council’s Aware:

Agile hosting model: Avail cloud, hybrid, and on-premises hosting solutions.

On-demand customization: Comprehensive customization as per business requirement.

Integration on the existing system: Process integration without creating any changes in the existing system.

Simple and intuitive user interface: Straightforward user interface that can be integrated with any business model.

Utmost flexibility and time-efficient: Highly flexible and efficient for better and prompt simulation results.

Single platform: The only platform that allows phishing, SMiShing, and vishing simulations without any hassle.

Complete DIY solution: Zero technical complexities to experience the “do-it-yourself” solution.

Scalability: The solution is highly scalable to gain maximum benefits.

Managed dashboard with executive reporting structure: Advanced reporting solution with specially designed and managed dashboard.

Integrated with world-class learning management system: Best training modules to confirm high-level security awareness knowledge.

Pre-defined repository and templates: Unlimited and varied templates for usage from the pre-defined repository for better results and outcomes.

Round-the-clock support: Efficient support team that can provide the best support 24/7/365.

Frequently Asked Questions