Data breaches are one of the most common cyber security incidents that can cost companies millions, even trillions of dollars.
One common denominator across many data breaches is the lack of cybersecurity awareness. In a 2022 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report from Fortinet, 80% of data breach victims cited a lack of cyber security awareness or skills for why the attacks were successful. Additionally, 38% of those victims lost more than a million dollars from data breaches of their companies.
Losing millions of dollars in a data breach is avoidable with the right end-user cybersecurity awareness training program.
Below, we'll discuss the importance of security awareness training and why learning with KnowBe4 and Kevin Mitnick's security awareness training program is the best call for your organization.
Kevin Mitnick is a world-renowned white-hat hacker with extensive experience in the world of cyber security. Kevin has been on the FBI’s most wanted list for his hacking pranks and is now the white-hat hacking leader of The Global Ghost Team.
A white-hat hacker — also known as an ethical hacker — is a hired cyber security expert that specializes in finding weaknesses in an organization’s security with the intent to help that organization defend against threat actors. By pinpointing vulnerabilities, a white-hat hacker can show the organization where and how to improve their cybersecurity posture.
Kevin shares his knowledge and expertise through training programs designed to help employees become more aware of their surroundings and learn to identify potential threats before they can impact the organization.
So, why is security awareness training important and why is it best led by a white-hat hacker? Here are a few perks white-hat hackers provide for organizations across the world.
A system’s antivirus software doesn’t always catch every potential threat or spot every weakness. The risk of missing these threats and leaving weaknesses exposed to attacks can cost your organization upward of $4 million. Security awareness training can help your employees identify vulnerabilities and avoid falling prey to social engineering tactics.
When working with a white-hat hacker, their goal is the same as yours: to improve the security of your organization. They will tailor their methods to fit your company’s requirements to provide the best results.
White-hat hackers — like The Global Ghost Team — follow ethical standards and guidelines to keep your data safe during their procedures and strive to show you the best ways you can improve your security stack. Security awareness training can educate your employees on new ways threat actors are penetrating organizations, like with Microsoft Teams.
Because white-hat hackers are veterans in cybersecurity, they bring the best tools and techniques proven to provide the best results.
White-hat hackers can perform pentests quickly and precisely, identifying weaknesses that other malicious hackers would otherwise exploit. As experts in the field, they can help your organization see from the eyes of the attackers — a perspective that allows you to shore up vulnerabilities effectively.
Kevin Mitnick’s security awareness training program includes:
For everyone, organization and employee, different learning formats are necessary for the best outcomes. Kevin accounts for this in his end-user cybersecurity awareness training, tailoring his teaching methods to your needs.
There are many more cyberattacks that pose a significant threat to organizations than data breaches. Here are three more common cyber threats covered in Kevin Mitnick’s security awareness training program:
Social engineering is the act of using social tricks to get someone to reveal personal information. For example, a hacker could call an internet provider and impersonate a customer to get the internet provider to tell them personal information about the person the hacker is impersonating.
Phishing is a very common cyberattack. Hackers commonly use phishing to send several emails or messages containing malicious content or links to a large group of people.
Spear phishing targets one person or organization rather than several random people. “Whaling” takes this a step further and targets high-status organizations to extort them or blackmail them with the sensitive data they’ve obtained.
Similar to spear phishing and whaling, ransomware hackers can target anyone, but often target organizations with sensitive data or a lot of money. Ransomware can infect systems through phishing techniques or by downloading malicious software from untrustworthy websites.
Once ransomware has infected a system, the attacker can lock users out of accessing sensitive data through encryption, holding the data ransom, hence the name of this malware.
In Kevin Mitnick’s user awareness training program, he shows you how you can protect your organization from data breaches, social engineering, phishing, ransomware, and many more types of cyberattacks.
Ready to protect your organization and learn the best cybersecurity practices from the world’s most famous hacker? Sign up for a top-notch and comprehensive security awareness training from Kevin Mitnick and KnowBe4 today.