43% of businesses don’t keep on top of their staff’s cybersecurity training, according to Small Biz Trends. Since the start of the year, Capital One, StockX and the American Medical Collection Agency have all fallen victim to cyber-attacks. This, therefore, highlights the importance of cybersecurity in business. But how do you ensure that your staff are as competent in cybersecurity as you are?
Top-up Their Knowledge
If you’re one of the 92% of businesses that have provided cybersecurity training to your staff then you’re heading in the right direction. However, it’s essential that you keep your employees’ knowledge up to date. Cyber attackers are increasingly using new sophisticated methods to hack businesses. This year, data skimming techniques, macro-based attack, and software hijacking have been common occurrences. As such, you need to ensure that top-up training is regularly given to all of your employees on the latest ways to help them identify a potential attack. 
Report, Report,Report
It’s estimated that 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent each day. With these kinds of dangerous emails doing the rounds, it’s important that you encourage your employees to report them, along with any other suspicious cyber activity they come across. Having a dedicated team to deal with these issues as they are reported is wise. Although, you can take some of the burden off your staff with cloud managed security. Such services will monitor the condition of your hardware and software, and investigate when a security concern arises. Ideally, your staff and your security service will work together to forge the best possible protection against cyber attackers.
Stress The Risks
Many employees simply don’t understand the risks associated with cyber breaches, so it’s crucial that this information is drilled into them. Not only do they need to be aware of the financial repercussions for the company, but they also need to understand that it can damage the brand, customer loyalty, and even lead to job losses. This is particularly the case if you’re running a small operation, as research shows that 60% of small businesses that have been targeted by a cyber attack cease trading within six months.
Cyber attacks are a significant risk to businesses across the globe, so it’s crucial that your employees are competent in understanding them. As a business owner, this means you must ensure their training is kept up to date, that you have a plan of action in place, and that the repercussions are recognized by all.
A great way to make your social channels and content known is to utilize email marketing to your advantage. Many digital marketing sites offer organizational software that will help you create email lists to target specific audiences. This will give your digital marketing a personalized approach, and you won’t waste time contacting people who simply aren’t interested. Before creating a list, you should do some market research on the buying habits of your customers. Then, you can use the information you gather to create targeted lists that will speak to your buyer on an individualized level—depending if they are already a customer or a new lead.
By integrating the digital marketing strategies of social media outreach, content creation, and email blasts, e-commerce sites can approach a target market in a way that will lead to greater growth and success as a business.
