10 Cyber Security Training for Employees in 2024

As our digital interconnectedness grows, so do the chances for cyber threats, ranging from data breaches to phishing scams and sophisticated malware attacks. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime is predicted to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, representing the need for powerful cyber security measures. 

Since employees are the primary target for cybercriminals, the first line of defense for many organizations is to train their human element. This is where cyber security training for employees becomes crucial, which equips your frontline users to work as “human firewalls”. Read on for a handpicked collection of 10 cyber security training topics for your workforce. 

Importance of Cyber Security Training for Employees

According to a report by IBM, human error is responsible for 95% of cybersecurity incidents. In other words, if human error was not a contributing factor, 19 out of 20 cybersecurity breaches would have been avoided. This underlines the need for well-informed and vigilant employees who can recognize and respond to cyber threats, saving your organization from financial losses. 

Training employees to identify and avoid phishing attempts makes them likelier to spot suspicious links, thereby reducing an organization’s vulnerability to cyber attacks. In addition, cyber security training for employees equips the workforce with the best practices and security measures. This way, the employees are better informed about handling sensitive data, not clicking on suspicious links, and using strong passwords. 

10 Topics for Cyber Security Training for Employees

According to the Insider Data Breach Survey, 55% of IT leaders rely on staff members to notify them about cybersecurity incidents. This is why employees should be able to quickly spot and recognize security threats, thereby preventing unauthorized access into a company’s database. 

Since cybersecurity is a vast domain, it is usually divided into bite-sized topics to help employees absorb the information most relevant to their roles. Let’s look at 10 most common topics for cyber security training for employees. 

1. Phishing Awareness Training

With 31,000 phishing attacks dispatched daily, phishing awareness is a must in any cyber security training for employees program. In this form of cyber attack, bad actors attempt to deceive individuals into providing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or credit card numbers. A phishing attack is usually conducted by impersonating oneself as a trustworthy authority, like an IT department professional or an HR employee. 

For example, you may receive an email where the subject states “Urgent: Security Update Required”, and the message body reads:

“Dear Employee, a critical vulnerability has been detected in our network. Please click the link below to install the latest security patch immediately. Failure to do so within 24 hours may result in suspension of your network access”

The email looks legitimate, with the company’s logo, and even the sender’s email address seems to come from the IT department. However, when you look closely, the link directs you to a malicious website designed to steal your login credentials. This is how phishing attacks rely on the urgency and apparent authority of the message to trick you into compromising your security. 

Thus, employees should be trained to spot the telltale signs of phishing attempts, including: 

• Unexpected requests for sensitive information
• Poor grammar or unfamiliar email addresses
• Urgent subjects or malicious redirecting links 
• To good to be true offers or threats 
• Generic greetings or suspicious logos 

2. Password Management 

A 2022 study by NordPass found that “123456” was still the most commonly used password, surpassing “admin” in its usability. Often, malicious actors use guessable patterns like these to gain access to your corporate accounts, stealing data and private information. These details are then sold on the deep web or made public, compromising the integrity of your organization. 

Since employees usually handle sensitive information, like personal data, financial records, and business information, having a strong password is crucial. This is why password management is an integral component of cyber security training for employees. It is defined as the process of creating, storing, and managing passwords in a secure and efficient manner. 

Here’s what your password management training should include:

1. Educate employees on what makes a strong password, like a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
2. Encourage them to use at least 12-character long passwords
3. Advise against using easily guessable passwords such as “password 123”
4. Introduce password manager tools that can security store and manage passwords
5. Instruct employees to change and update their passwords periodically

3. Social Media Scam Training

Social media has become an integral part of both personal and professional lives, blurring the lines between the two. Employees often use social platforms to network, share information, and even conduct business activities, like looking for clients or influencers. But, with customers and collaborators, social media is also full of cybercriminals hunting to exploit unsuspecting users. 

According to the cybersecurity vendor, Checkpoint, LinkedIn made up 52% of all phishing attacks in the first quarter of 2022. Bad actors often target social media platforms to find employees, who are considered the weakest link in an organization’s security chain. They may target you with phishing scams like fake profiles or promises of high returns on investments. 

Ever received a message stating, “you’ve won a giveaway but you need to pay a processing fee to claim the prize?” Well, that’s a social media scam in action. Here’s what a social media security awareness training for small business should consist of: 

• Educate employees to regularly review their privacy settings
• Tell them to set their social media profiles to private 
• Advise them to limit personal information sharing with third-party apps
• Adjust their settings to require their approval for any tags made by others
• Refrain from clicking on links or downloading unknown attachments 

4. Data Protection and Privacy

When you collect consumer data, it is your responsibility to maintain the privacy of that information, thereby preventing it from misuse and breaches. Therefore, all organizations that obtain consumer data should include data protection in their cyber training for employees program. The goal is to ensure that staff members know how to protect the data they interact with daily — while complying with legal and regulatory loopholes. 

But why is data protection training important for corporate employees? Well, many regulations mandate strict privacy measures, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. Failure to comply with these laws may cost your organization a lot in terms of penalties. 

5. Blockchain and Web 3.0 Training

Web 3.0 represents the next evolution of the internet, thanks to decentralization, smart contracts, and user ownership of data. Distributing the control back to its users, the third generation of the internet is all about fewer middlemen and more ownership. This technology is built on Semantic Web and Blockchain, which is a decentralized ledger mechanism that stores data across a network of computers in a secure, transparent, and tamper-proof manner. 

As data becomes more widespread, organizations should migrate to smart contracts and decentralized systems to shield themselves against cyber attacks. Plus, the decentralized nature and cryptographic security of Blockchain provide strong protection against data tampering and unauthorized access. So, if you want to future-proof your company, make blockchain and Web 3.0 a must in your cyber defense training program. 

6. Device Security Training

As global interconnectedness grows, so do flexible working models, letting employees stay in touch with their workstations, whether they’re relaxing at home or halfway around the world. Due to the hybrid work convenience, employees these days use many devices to complete office tasks, including laptops, smartphones, tablets, and even IoT gadgets. 

This is why device security should be a part of any computer security training for employees. By teaching staff members how to secure and properly use their corporate devices, this training protects your organization from cyber attacks. 

It covers all protocols aimed at protecting devices from unauthorized access, malware, and other security threats. The goal is to ensure that all devices within the company, whether company-issued or personal, stick to security standards. 

Here’s what your device security training should consist of:

• Importance of creating strong passwords for each device and account
• Process of enabling encryption on devices to protect data at rest 
• Email and SMS phishing red flags to watch out for along with common tactics
• Use of privacy screens to prevent shoulder surfing and unauthorized access
• Say NO to public Wi-Fi and use WPA3 encryption on home networks
• Awareness of backup methods (cloud storage and external drives)

7. Safe Internet Browsing

According to a report by Symantec, 1 in 13 web requests leads to malware, which helps cyber attackers gain unauthorized access to your systems. To prevent such instances, companies should introduce free cyber training for employees centered around safe internet browsing. This practice teaches members to use the web in a way that minimizes exposure to cyber threats. 

By practicing safe browsing, employees can avoid malware-loaded sites and prevent infections that could compromise their workstations. This is especially important in industries that handle confidential data, such as finance and healthcare. 

To be safe while browsing the internet, all you need to do is use anti-virus software, avoid suspicious websites, and trust a VPN for a secure internet connection. 

Note: In internet browsing training, teach your employees to always look for the HTTPS prefix and a padlock icon in the address bar. This indicates a secure and encrypted connection. 

8. Ransomware Awareness Training

Known as one of the top threats that keep executives up at night, ransomware attacks are designed to drain companies of their finances. In many cases, these attacks can leave companies scrambling to recover, sometimes even pushing them to the brink of closure. In fact, the average payment for a ransom attack was reported at $2 million, as per a Sophos report. 

None of us hard-working professionals would have our company’s files locked on a random work day, demanding a heavy ransom for release, right? The only solution is to add ransomware awareness to your IT security training for employees. This way, your members will be well-informed on how to steer clear of such money-draining attacks. 

9. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-Factor authentication (MFA) is a security system that requires users to provide multiple forms of identification before accessing an account or system. This usually involves combining two or more independent credentials: 

• Something the user knows (like a password)
• Something the user has (like a smartphone or a security token)
• Something the user is (biometric verification like facial recognition or fingerprints)

Since MFA requires multiple forms of verification, it blocks 99.9% of account compromise attacks, reducing the chances of unauthorized access. Phishing and social media attacks usually aim to steal passwords. But, with MFA, even if an attacker somehow obtains an employee’s password, they would still need the second factor (like a code sent to their phone) to access their account. This makes it much harder to execute cyber attacks. 

10. Remote Working Training

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a migration towards remote work, a trend that has persisted and is likely to continue. According to a report by Upwork, 22% of the American workforce will be working from their homes in 2025. However, with the rise in hybrid-working models, the cybersecurity challenges also increase, making it easier for bad actors to conduct phishing activities. 

Moreover, remote employees often access company resources from different devices and networks, many of which may not be as secure as corporate environments. This leads to an expanded attack surface, leaving more chances for cyber criminals to exploit vulnerabilities. This is why your cyber security training for employees now is incomplete without a module on remote and flexi-work models. 

Conclusion

Training employees on cyber security is now more crucial than ever, given the increasingly connected digital landscape with looming cyber threats. Security training modules ensure that your team members are well-informed to identify, respond, and react to cyber threats on time, thereby minimizing data loss and security breaches. 

If you’re ready to turn your employees into a powerful line of defense against cyber criminals, design an AI-powered training program with Coursebox today. With instant grading and feedback for learners, the platform equips your teams with all it takes to minimize vulnerabilities. 

You can also create quizzes and assignments in seconds to test the knowledge retention of your employees, ensuring there’s nothing between you and a secure, resilient organization. So, secure your company’s future with Coursebox now!