With new ways of cyberattacks coming to the limelight daily, some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not understand the criticality of the risk. Every organization (small or large) should know the basics of network security and encourage their employees to go for network security certifications. How will such steps help? Let’s find out below.
Learning of Blog
- Introduction
- Why should SMEs worry more about network security?
- Why should SMEs focus on network security training?
- Conclusion
Introduction
Data breaches have become common. Often, we hear about such hacks in large corporations. One such recent incident was with Facebook in 2019, where the data of almost 267 million users was compromised. This is the news which is highlighted because they are from the top organizations. Owners of SMEs often think that they are safe and assume that hackers attack large companies only. As a matter of fact, small companies are at a higher risk of data breaches. Why? Because they are easier to hack, and people in such companies are often ignorant about data security. Let’s discuss it in detail.
Why should SMEs worry more about network security?
Cybercriminals look for easy targets; they can be small or large corporations. A single weak point is enough for them to access the whole network. Some conventional methods hackers use are hacking and malware, while physical attacks, access misuse, or social media attacks are uncommon.
Unfortunately, SMEs do not focus much on network security and usually do not have a strategic plan to ensure the safety of their data. Employees of small companies are often found to be careless and ignorant when it comes to the security of their data.
When it comes to the physical security of systems, SMEs employ methods like CCTVs. Such practices increase the risk of hacks as such cameras can be easily hacked as they are connected to the internet. When such organizations grow, they install new cameras or other equipment without any plan rather than designing a whole strategy and implementing it.
Why should SMEs focus on network security training?
Recent data of cyberattacks shows that small companies are not able to bear the loss when they are attacked and are never able to stand again. Thus, companies have realized the significance of network security engineers or network security training for their employees.
The employees cannot just learn everything from Google. They need proper training from network security professionals so that they can protect their companies from hacks. Below are the reasons why companies should invest in network security training of their employees.
1. Human Firewalls – The role of a firewall is to protect the network by identifying any suspicious attackers. But are they 100% reliable? No!
If you provide your employees with proper network security training, they ‘ll act as a human firewall. They’ll be able to identify spam emails and will be aware of the best practices to follow. Such training sessions should happen regularly as your organization grows so that the new joiners are also equipped to deal with critical issues.
2. Data encryption
Almost every cybersecurity engineer certification course in this world teaches data encryption in its fundamentals and highlights its value. If every employee of your company is familiar with the basics of data encryption, they’ll be in a better position to protect the sensitive information of your company from network hacks. If the data is encrypted, only authorized users will be able to read the data.
However, data encryption does not mean that the network cannot be hacked. The solution to this problem lies with giving privileges to the users. Only the management and senior members are privileged to see sensitive and essential data of the organization so that if the network security is compromised, the user does not have access to sensitive data.
3. Reduced downtime
If there is a network attack, the time taken to investigate and recover from it is considerable. All this time, your staff will not be able to do anything, and it will also affect the deadlines of your projects. If your team is trained to handle such incidents, it’ll considerably reduce the downtime and save you the cost of a professional network engineer.
4. Overall cybersecurity
The main aim of training the employees about network security is to protect sensitive information and contribute towards overall cybersecurity. By training your staff, you ensure that every member can identify security threats.
For example, your marketing team is targeted by a spam social media post. Your IT team will be aware of the risk, but what if the marketing team does not identify the risk? Every employee of the company plays an essential role in ensuring overall cybersecurity in an SME.
Conclusion
As hackers are becoming smarter day by day and coming up with new ways to hack into a network. Sometimes, they identify weak links in an organization and hack into the system with the most basic methods. To reap all the aforementioned benefits, SMEs need to focus on network security training for all their employees – from senior managers to the janitor.
We at Global Tech Council, have designed online network security certification courses to help professionals learn more about cybersecurity and prevent their companies from hackers.
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