Businesses that rely on just AV leave themselves vulnerable to more modern, insidious cyber attacks. For example, Zero Day attacks, where hackers exploit vulnerabilities that no one even knows exist yet, or the increasingly common threats of phishing and other types of social engineering.

Robust cyber security training transforms your employees into your business’s strongest line of defence against cyber attacks. And it becomes all the more valuable when you consider that – according to some estimates – 90% of security breaches are caused by human error.

This isn’t about people doing things wrong intentionally. It’s about genuine mistakes. Imagine someone in your team accidently clicks a malicious link hidden in an invoice, uses an easily guessable password, or unwittingly shares confidential data to the wrong email address. These incidents can lead to lengthy downtime, reputational damage, increased cost and significant headaches for businesses.

A proper programme of employee IT security training can reduce the chances of your business experiencing a cyber security disaster by up to 70%.

A ‘proper programme of cyber security training’ might sound out of reach if business budgets and resources are stretched. However, we strongly believe that cyber security training is an essential component of successful businesses. You’ve only got to read some of the recent headlines about national supermarkets being hit by cyber attacks to get a sense of its importance.

Effective cyber security training is about so much more than just ticking a box. It educates and empowers your team to follow cybersecurity best practices and confidently protect themselves from social engineering threats. This reduces the risk of falling foul of common threats. Having a training programme can also help maintain compliance with industry regulations and insurance requirements.

We offer our clients in Brighton and Sussex access to BullPhish ID security awareness training. Here’s why:

• Online interactive cyber security training
• Realistic phishing simulations
• Ongoing assessments
• Affordable and easy-to-use
• Customisable materials to increase relevance for your team
• Reporting to keep track of training completion rates
• We handle all technical aspects of setting up the training efficiently, ensuring it’s tailored to your needs

The middle layer of cyber security is about monitoring your own IT systems. This is to make sure everything is behaving as it should and identifying any security issues as soon as possible.

A combination of MDR (Managed Detection and Response) and XDR (Extended Detection & Response) provides more robust, proactive cyber security than on their own.

XDR monitors your entire IT environment holistically – endpoints, networks, cloud environments and email – giving you a full picture of your security. Meanwhile, MDR – essentially an outsourced security operations centre (SOC) – brings the brains to interpret the data, make the right decisions and take impactful action.

Find out more about XDR and MDR in our other recent cyber security blog post.

Unfortunately, with the rapid evolution of modern cyber threats, even the best methods of prevention and protection aren’t always bulletproof. Should the worst happen and your information be compromised as part of a cyber attack, dark web monitoring raises the alarm so you can react quickly to limit the damage.

The dark web is a hidden part of the internet, not indexed by standard search engines like Google. It’s also a marketplace where stolen information, often from data breaches, phishing attacks or weak cybersecurity measures, is bought and sold. Without dark web monitoring, your company’s sensitive information – including email addresses, employee passwords, and customer data – could be available without your knowledge, until it’s too late.

We offer Dark Web ID from ID Agent, a leading dark web monitoring programme. Dark Web ID provides comprehensive scanning of all corners of the dark web through:

• Human and machine searches
• Monitoring of a wide range of data types, including email address, passwords & credit card information
• Raising alerts immediately if business data is found, giving you the crucial chance to act before cyber criminals do

Of course, if you’re one of our clients, we’ll also be on hand to help you respond swiftly, minimise damage and secure your business assets.

Although this three-layer analogy is nice and neat, the truth is, there is no end point for cyber security. It’s not a one-time fix but an ongoing process where prevention, detection and response are all critical, and all feed each other. For example, insights from dark web monitoring can inform and improve your training programmes.

Whatever cyber security support you need, we can help. Get in touch with us today for a chat about how best to protect your business.