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How to Build Successful Security Awareness Training Programs in 2021 and Beyond

Security awareness training is one of the most straightforward ways to improve a business’ overall resilience against cyberattacks. That is, when you get it just right.

Thanks to the disruptions to “normal” work routines that COVID-19 has brought, launching a company-wide training program to teach end users how to avoid phishing scams and online risks is a big challenge. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has also brought a major acceleration in phishing activity. With so many office employees working outside the safety of corporate network protections, you can see why the need for training has never been more critical.

But there’s another issue: training is outside the skillset for most IT admins, and the level of effort to set up and run a program of training courses, compliance accreditations and phishing simulations can be daunting.

To help you get started, here are our top 5 recommendations for starting your security awareness program so you can maximize the impact of your efforts.

  1. Get buy-in from stakeholders.

While you probably already have some combination of security tools in place, such as endpoint protection, DNS or web filtering, etc., the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report states that phishing and social engineering are still the primary tactics used in successful cybersecurity breaches.

Make sure your stakeholders understand these threats. Send an email introducing the program to management and clearly explain the importance of educating users and measuring and mitigating your risk of exposure to phishing and other social engineering attacks.

  • Start with a baseline phishing campaign.
    When you run your first phishing campaign, you establish your starting point for measuring and demonstrating improvement over time. (You can also use this real-world data to accurately show the need for improvement to any still-skeptical stakeholders.) Ideally this initial campaign should be sent to all users without any type of forewarning or formal announcement, including members of leadership teams. Make sure to use an option that simply shows a broken link to users who click through, instead of alerting them to the campaign, so you can prevent word-of-mouth between employees from skewing the results.
  • Set up essential security and compliance training.
    Create training campaigns to cover essential cybersecurity topics including phishing, social engineering, passwords and more. Establish which compliance courses are appropriate (or required) for your organization and which employees need to complete them.
  • Establish a monthly phishing simulation and training cadence.
    Repetition and relevance are key for a successful security awareness training program. By setting up a regular simulation and training schedule, you can more easily measure progress and keep an eye on any high-risk users who might need extra attention. Using our shorter 4-5-minute modules in between more substantial training is an effective tactic to keep security top of mind while avoiding user fatigue. And if you can’t run phishing simulations monthly, strive for a quarterly cadence. If you get pushback on sending emails to everyone, then we recommend you prioritize testing users who failed the previous round.
  • Communicate results
    A great way to raise awareness and increase the impact of your phishing campaigns is to share the results across the organization. Keep in mind, the goal is to capitalize on collective engagement and share aggregate results, not to call out individuals. (Your “offenders” will recognize themselves anyway – no need to call them out!)

The critical piece is that seeing the statistics on where the organization stands as a whole.  After the baseline phishing simulation, send out an email to all employees with the results and the reasoning for the campaign. Communicating these numbers will not only help show improvement over time, it’ll also demonstrate the value of the program overall and reinforce to employees that cyber resilience isn’t just IT’s job – it’s a responsibility we all share.

Although there are numerous other tips and tricks that can help ensure the success of your security awareness training program, these are our top five basic pieces of advice to get you on your way. When you follow these steps, it won’t take long to see the very real returns on your training investment.

For more detailed tips on how you can put Webroot® Security Awareness Training to work to improve your business’ cyber resilience posture, view our white paper.

The post How to Build Successful Security Awareness Training Programs in 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Remote Work is Here to Stay, and Other Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021

The cybersecurity industry and end-of-year predictions go together like Fall and football or champagne and the New Year. But on the heels of an unprecedented year, where a viral outbreak changed the landscape of the global workforce practically overnight, portending what’s in store for the year ahead is even trickier than usual.  

One thing the cybersecurity experts at Webroot agree on is that work from home is here to stay for 2021, or at least it won’t recede to pre-pandemic levels in even the medium-term. What is likely to change is how companies respond to their remote workforces. The security measures they take (or don’t), the educational opportunities they provide (or fail to) and their commitment to innovation (or lack thereof) will likely separate the winners from the losers in the year ahead.

Yes, cybersecurity for remote workforces will likely be a prevailing concern throughout 2021, even following positive news on the vaccine development front, according to Webroot experts. Another prevailing theme from the professionals here, when asked to make their annual predictions for the new year, is that a cybersecurity skills gap will continue to haunt businesses and pose opportunities for those looking to start their careers in the field or make the switch to it. As such, automation and the adoption of AI technologies will be critical to plugging the gap.

Read on for more details from leading engineers, security analysts and product specialists from around our organization for complete cybersecurity predictions for 2021. Take heart because, whatever happens, 2020 won’t be easily outdone (knock on wood).

On remote workforces and the problem of personal devices

David Dufour, VP of engineering, Carbonite + Webroot

In 2021, many businesses will continue to operate remotely as a result of the pandemic and there must be an emphasis on training employees on security best practices, how to identify modern threats such as phishing, and where company data is being accessed and stored. Phishing is going to remain one of the most prominent ways to attack users and will become more sophisticated as it’s tailored to take advantage of work-from-home setups and distractions.  

Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director, Carbonite + Webroot

The biggest change for 2021 will be securing remote workforces and remote perimeters, which include home networks and home devices, particularly personal devices. These all add their own challenges. Home networks and their configurations are diverse. Many use out-of-date routers with insecure settings. Personal devices are often used for work and, as we saw in our 2020 Threat Report, are twice as likely as business devices to encounter infections. If not addressed, this could have a serious impact on businesses in the coming year.

Hal Lonas, CTO and SVP of SMB engineering, Carbonite + Webroot

We shouldn’t overlook the incredible societal and behavioral changes underway right now. These put all of us in new situations we’ve never encountered before. These new contexts create new opportunities for social engineering attacks like phishing and scare tactics to get us to open emails and click on fraudulent links.

Tyler Moffitt, Sr. security analyst, Carbonite + Webroot

It really doesn’t matter the company or the length of the work-from-home stint, one thing that’s constant is that professionals at home are using their personal devices and personal network. Securing the remote perimeter is going to be the biggest challenge for cybersecurity professionals now through 2021 because laptops issued to professional workforce are much more secure than personal devices.

Personal devices are twice as likely to be infected than business devices. Even more worrying, we saw with our new COVID-19 report that one-third of Americans will use personal devices when working from home. Businesses will need to account for that.

Jamie Zajac, VP of product management, Carbonite + Webroot

I predict that in 2021 vulnerable industries like hospitality, travel and retail will start to use even more remote access platforms like Square and others. This transfers a lot of control to a third-party, so it’s essential companies make sure their data is protected on their end, that their vendors are trustworthy and that their reputation is safe from the damage an internal breach could cause

On the cybersecurity skills shortage

Briana Butler, engineering services manager, Carbonite + Webroot

Moving forward, cybersecurity professionals will need greater data analysis skills to be able to look at large sets of data and synthesize the information so organizations can derive actionable value from it. In 2021, organizations need to start implementing programs to upskill their current cybersecurity workforce to focus on the skills they’ll need for the future such as analyzing complex data, developing algorithms, and understanding machine learning techniques.

David Dufour, VP of engineering, Carbonite + Webroot

The cyber skills gap will continue to be an issue in 2021 because companies continue to believe they understand cybersecurity and, as a result, tend to spend less on external cybersecurity resources. This leads to a feeling of false security and, unfortunately, inadequate security.

Cybersecurity requires a financial investment to truly meet an organizations’ needs and to enact processes for securing systems. It’s much more effective to invest in a few, solid security processes and to address gaps at the outset than it is to implement an inexpensive, broad security solution that falls short in key areas.

Hal Lonas, CTO and SVP of SMB engineering, Carbonite + Webroot

The pandemic has also changed the game for managed service providers (MSPs). They’re used to running a thin-margin business, but this has become even more difficult as their small business customers struggle. MSPs are fortunately heavily automated, but now they are under increasing pressure to deliver more with less. MSPs more than ever need automated solutions that make it easy for them to manage, secure and restore customers when incidents do occur. Some of that automation will come from AI, but auto-remediation, backup and restore capabilities are also important.

Looking ahead to 2021

Whatever 2021 is, at least 2020 will be over, right? But in all seriousness, the virus does not respect our calendar transitions and its implications will certainly bleed over into the New Year. Much has been made of a supposed “new normal,” but to truly arrive there, companies must account for the new realities of pervasive remote work and an exacerbated cybersecurity skills shortage.

If there’s one takeaway from our experts’ predictions for 2021, it’s that.

The post Remote Work is Here to Stay, and Other Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021 appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Staying a Step Ahead of the Hack

Hackers, never at a loss for creative deception, have engineered new tactics for exploiting the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain: ourselves! Social engineering and business email compromise (BEC) are two related cyberattack vectors that rely on human error to bypass the technology defenses businesses deploy to deter malware.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is when hackers impersonate trusted associates or acquaintances to manipulate people into giving up their passwords, banking information, date of birth or anything else that could be used for identity theft. As it turns out, it’s easier to hack our trust than our computers. Social engineering covers a range of tactics:

  • Email from a friend or family member – A hacker gets access to the email password of someone you know. From there, they can send you a malicious link in an email that you’re more likely to click on because it came from someone you trust.
  • Compelling story (pretexting) – This includes urgently asking for help. This can read like, “Your friend is in danger and they need your help immediately – please send me money right away so they can get treatment!”
  • Standard phishing tactics – Phishing techniques include website spoofing emails appearing to come from an official source asking you to reset your password or confirm personal data. After clicking the link and entering the info, your security is compromised.
  • “You’re a winner” notifications ­– Whether a lottery prize or a free trip to Cancun, this tactic catches many off guard. It’s known as “greed phishing” and it takes advantage our fondness for pleasure or weakness for the word “free.”

Business Email Compromise

Business email compromise is a targeted attack against corporate personnel, usually someone with the authority to request or fulfill a financial transaction. Victims execute seemingly routine wire transfers to criminals impersonating legitimate business associates or vendors.

This form of fraud relies on a contrived pretext to request a payment or purchase be made on the attacker’s behalf. According to the FBI, BEC attacks resulted in more than $26 billion (you read that right) between June 2016 and July 2019. Here are a few tips for protecting users and businesses from BEC attacks:

Slow down – BEC attacks combine context and familiarity (an email from your boss) with a sense of urgency (I need this done now!). This causes victims to lose their critical thinking capabilities.

Don’t trust, verify – Never use the same channel, in this case email, to verify the identity of the requester. Pick up the phone and call, or use video chat.

Prepare for the inevitable – Use all the technology at your disposal to ensure a BEC attack doesn’t succeed. Machine learning-enabled endpoint security solutions can help identify malicious sites.

Address the weakest link – Train users to spot BEC attacks. Webroot testing shows that phishing simulations can improve users’ abilities to spot attacks.

Perfecting Your Posture

Webroot Security Intelligence Director, Grayson Milbourne, offers several suggestions that companies can do to increase their security posture. First, he says, “Whenever money is going to be sent somewhere, you should have a two-factor verification process to ensure you’re sending the money to the right person and the right accounts.”

Milbourne is also a big advocate of security awareness training. “You can really understand the security topology of your business with respect to your users’ risk factors,” he says. “So, the engineering team might score one way and the IT department might score another way. This gives you better visibility into which groups within your company are more susceptible to clicking on links in emails that they shouldn’t be clicking.”

With the increase in scams related to the global COVID-19 pandemic, timely and relevant user education is especially critical. “COVID obviously has been a hot topic so far this year, and in the last quarter we added close to 20 new templates from different COVID-related scams we see out in the wild,” Milbourne says.

“When we look at first-time deployment of security awareness training, north of 40% of people are clicking on links,” Milbourne says. “Then, after going through security awareness training a couple of times, we see that number dip below 10%.”

Where to learn more

Our newest research on phishing attacks and user (over)confidence, “COVID-19 Clicks: How Phishing Capitalized on a Global Crisis” is out now, check it out!

The post Staying a Step Ahead of the Hack appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Why Workers Aren’t Confident in their Companies’ Security (and What to Do About it)

According to data from a recent report, only 60% of office workers worldwide believe their company is resilient against cyberattacks. Nearly one in four (23%) admit to not knowing, while nearly one in five (18%) flat-out think it isn’t.

In the anonymous, write-in responses to the survey, many workers agreed that their employers could be doing more to support them and ensure their security. When asked to elaborate on why they didn’t believe their company was resilient against attacks, the most-repeated answers were along the following lines:

  • My company has been hacked before.
  • My company doesn’t prioritize security/security spend.
  • My company’s equipment and software are poorly maintained.
  • My company outsources its security, so we have no direct control.
  • I still get phishing emails. Our filtering must not be good enough.

These types of responses highlight two things: a general lack of faith in the company’s security and the perception that companies aren’t investing enough in security systems OR their employees. When considered alongside another question from the survey, there seems to be a third factor at play: there is also confusion as to who should be responsible for a company’s cyber resilience in the first place.

Overall, only 14% of office workers worldwide consider cyber resilience to be a responsibility all employees share. If workers also feel their companies don’t invest enough in them or the tools that protect them, it makes sense that they might not feel like cyber resilience is something they should worry about. If a person feels their employer doesn’t value them appropriately or empower them with the right tools to do their jobs, then the notion of having to expend one’s own time and energy on the company’s security could rankle. So how do you overcome the challenge of personal investment?

How to empower your people and your security

Investment

Dr. Prashanth Rajivan, cybersecurity and human behavior expert, says businesses that want to foster a feeling of personal investment must first tackle the notion of shared responsibility. He explains that, when people perceive themselves to have a greater responsibility to others, their average level of willingness to engage in risky behavior decreases.

“If you’re asking individuals to make changes to their own behavior for the greater safety of all, then you need to make it clear that you are willing to invest in them. By creating a feeling of personal investment in the individuals who make up a company, you encourage the employees to return that feeling of investment toward their workplace. That’s a huge part of ensuring that cybersecurity is part of the culture.” – Prashanth Rajivan, Ph.D.

One way to both empower your workforce to become a strong first line of defense while also demonstrating investment is by implementing a security awareness training program with phishing simulations, as well as giving employees enough time to carefully and thoughtfully complete the learning exercises and understand any applicable feedback.

Consistency

According to Phil Karcher, principal product manager in charge of Webroot® Security Awareness Training, running regular, up-to-date training on an ongoing basis is one of the best ways to help end users avoid attacks and become a strong first line of defense for the company as a whole.

“Data from Webroot® Security Awareness Training shows that, if you want people to make lasting changes to their behavior, you have to run consistent, relevant training courses and phishing simulations that are also varied enough that people won’t get bored or find them predictable. Running a second simulation makes a dramatic impact — and it only gets better from there.”

– Philipp Karcher, principal product manager, Carbonite + Webroot, OpenText Companies
Number of Phishing SimulationsClick-through Rate
111%
2-38%
4-106%
11-145%
15-174%

Feedback

Dr. Rajivan also reminds us that human behavior is shaped by experience and reinforcement. He and Phil agree that consistency is key for empowering your workforce to become more resilient. But Dr. Rajivan also stresses the importance of feedback over consequences.

“Without appropriate feedback, no amount of training will be effective. And because the average person handles uncertainty poorly, training must include a variety of different scenarios. Human behavior is shaped through varied experiences, with a mix of positive and negative outcomes and applicable feedback.

This feedback and incentive structure needs to be carefully calibrated. Too much could lead to heightened anxiety and false alarms, but too little could lead to underweighted risk, i.e. people knowing the correct actions, but not taking them.”

– Prashanth Rajivan, Ph.D.

Next steps

As phishing attacks continue to be a primary way that businesses get breached, the need for consistent end user education is clear. And by implementing a regular training regimen, you can demonstrate care and investment in your people, educate employees on scams, risks and what to do if the unthinkable happens, and successfully build cyber resilience into your overall company culture.

To take the first step towards cyber resilience and trial an engaging Security Awareness Training program, Take a Free Trial.  

The post Why Workers Aren’t Confident in their Companies’ Security (and What to Do About it) appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Small Businesses are Counting on Their MSPs this Small Business Saturday

This November 28 may be the most important Small Business Saturday since the occasion was founded by American Express in 2010.

As early as July, nearly half (43 percent) of small businesses had closed at least temporarily, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Research also suggests that 30 percent of small businesses expect to exhaust their cash on hand before year’s end. Eighty-eight percent have already spent the funds allocated to them by the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program loan.

While hopes will be buoyed for some by recent positive developments in the search for a vaccine, uncertainty and hard times no doubt still lie ahead. That’s why Webroot encourages advocates and partners to shop small this November 28. For our customers, we aim to be a source of support and sound consultation as we recover together.

Challenges and opportunities for small businesses and MSPs

Many of the small businesses affected by COVID-19 are among Webroot’s clientele. Many more, especially managed service providers, count small businesses as their most important customers. We’ve heard from many who are suffering from lost contracts following office closures, fewer onsite projects, disappearing budgets for business development projects and a general slowdown of new business.

Others are witnessing a shift in the work they do and the services most in-demand. For some, COVID-related challenges have presented opportunities to step up and offer services made necessary by new realities. Unsurprisingly, the already trending adoption of cloud infrastructure has quickened its pace in the age of remote work.

“We’ve had to speed up migrating some clients on-premise file servers to online cloud solutions,” according to Russell Harris, a support engineer and project manager at Maya Solutions Ltd., a UK-based MSP specializing in Apple product support

For David Yates, president of Geeks R Us, a West Coast provider of various technical services, the shift to remote work was the push some of his customers needed to leave physical servers behind.

“A few clients who were reluctant to move to the cloud have now embraced it. This was the impetus that they needed to finally migrate away from on-premise servers,” he said.

Many MSPs have also taken it upon themselves to guide their clients through the transition to remote work, especially in terms of security.

“We’ve had to shift to more cloud, VPN and helping our clients work remotely,” says Nathan Hardester, a telecoms administrator with Whidbey Tech Solutions, a Washington-based MSP.

Cybersecurity education is another opportunity for MSPs looking to help small business clients up their cyber resilience. We know that many office workers are overly confident in their ability to detect a phishing attack, so MSPs should position themselves as educators. Already, in the COVID-era, some are finding themselves do exactly that.

Asked what’s changed at Maya Solutions since the pandemic, Harris responds “needing to provide additional training on online safety due to many working from home on their own devices.”

Making it through together

Many MSPs—often small businesses themselves—rely on their small business clients run for their success. And on this Small Business Saturday, small businesses need us all more than ever. Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for MSPs to step up and guide their clients through the changing way we work.

For more tips on staying cyber resilient through COVID-19 and beyond, stay tuned to our Community threat and check out these tips for MSPs looking to help small businesses bounce back.

The post Small Businesses are Counting on Their MSPs this Small Business Saturday appeared first on Webroot Blog.