After cyber criminals have continuously targeted American businesses and vital sectors, a group of bipartisan House lawmakers introduced a bill to increase cyber awareness. The American Cybersecurity Literacy Act would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to create a cyber literacy campaign. The campaign’s objective is to increase awareness. By increasing awareness, the public’s understanding of how to stay safe online will be amplified. This in turn will result in fewer successful cyber attacks.
With 95% of cybersecurity incidents being a result of human error, the idea of increasing awareness and education behind today’s cyber threats would withhold the power to make an impact. However, this will not be the silvery bullet to reducing cyber crime.
Education and awareness are key. Although implementing proactive solutions, like zero-trust methodologies will amplify your security infrastructure when placed on top of the existing cybersecurity stack. Additionally, it will be important for organizations, both at a private and public level, to make these changes mandatory. Just because there are guidelines, new legislation, and identified best practices, it does not mean organizations will follow them. In order to require industries within the private and public sectors to deploy these best practices increased regulation would be required.
Willingness to Bolster Cyber Awareness
Until regulations require businesses to take action, the adoption is entirely based on desire and ability. Therefore, if an organization lacks the resources, they will not be penalized by not obtaining the appropriate resources to increase the cyber risk awareness within their company. there may also be time constraints. Having employees take part in cyber security training takes time, which may impact productivity. Finally, there must be a desire to increase their cyber awareness. Many employees do not understand cybersecurity risks. They are unaware how to spot potential scams and malicious emails. Additionally, they may not understand the possible impact of a successful cyber attack. Because of this, they do not feel the need to increase awareness to prevent the attacks.
Until regulations are in place, business owners and leaders need to be proactive. Use the resources available, require cybersecurity training for your employees, and educate them on the importance of being cyber secure. By discussing the risks, staff members will be more likely to learn from the cybersecurity training, versus clicking through to check it off their to-dos.
