Enhance Security Literacy for Corporate Security Measures!
The IPA (Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan), handled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, has announced the 2022 edition of the Top 10 Information Security Threats.
This is a ranking based on expert analysis and selection of socially impactful incidents that occurred in 2021. The ranking of information security threats is as follows:
1st Place: “Damage from Ransomware”
Attacks that infect PCs and servers, locking devices or encrypting data and demanding money.
2nd Place: “Theft of Confidential Information”
Targeted attacks aimed at stealing confidential information from specific organizations.
3rd Place: “Attacks Targeting New Normal Work Styles Such as Telework”
Attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in the work environment during telework due to COVID-19 to steal confidential information.
The main attack methods for the top three threats involve embedding viruses in email attachments or links, or infecting users through compromised websites, targeting employees within organizations.
Based on these results, it is essential to enhance employees’ security literacy and implement countermeasures to prevent confidential information from being stolen by third parties.
Therefore, companies may wonder, “How can we strengthen security literacy?” and “What exactly is security literacy?”
This article introduces the necessity of security literacy, how to educate employees to strengthen it, and security software that eliminates the need for security literacy.
Literacy generally refers to the ability to read and write. In business, it means understanding and interpreting information appropriately.
Security literacy, as used in the title, refers to the knowledge and ability to understand the importance of information security for information devices such as PCs and smartphones, technologies using the internet, and corporate and customer information, and to handle them appropriately.
Table of Contents
- The Necessity of Security Literacy
- How to Enhance Security Literacy
- Educate about Security Literacy
- Conduct Surprise Cyber Attacks on Employees
- Distribute Information on Security Literacy
- “EXO Security” That Eliminates the Need for Security Literacy
- Malware Detection Function
- Anti-Ransomware Function
- Malicious Site Access Blocking Function
- Conclusion
1. The Necessity of Security Literacy
The need for security literacy has been attracting attention in recent years, and the reason for this is the impact of COVID-19. The number of people working remotely has increased, and telework is becoming the norm. The use of PCs and smartphones for business and personal use is also rapidly spreading.
In addition, attacks targeting security literacy, such as phishing attacks on individuals by third parties, are increasing. Data shows that in 2021, there were 137 personal information leakage/loss incidents at listed companies, and the number is increasing every year. The main causes are virus infection and unauthorized access, accounting for 50% of the incidents. This indicates that some of the damage is due to low security literacy.
It can be said that if companies do not educate their employees on security literacy, information leaks may be discovered, resulting in significant damage.
2. How to Enhance Security Literacy
High security literacy among employees is linked to high security for companies handling confidential information.
From here, we will introduce methods to improve security literacy.
2-1. Educate about Security Literacy
Regularly conduct e-learning within the company to educate employees about confidential information.
E-learning allows employees to learn through videos and texts on the internet using PCs and smartphones, so they can be educated regardless of location.
In addition, the e-learning administrator, i.e., the company, can conduct tests on the materials that employees have taken and manage their learning status, so they can measure the level of security literacy of their employees.
2-2. Conduct Surprise Cyber Attacks on Employees
In addition to e-learning lectures and tests, conducting cyber attack training allows you to see how employees respond and whether they can put what they have learned in e-learning into practice.
If employees access email attachments or URLs, their security literacy is low. By re-educating them through e-learning and investigating the reasons why they could not demonstrate their knowledge in practice, you can improve education and enhance security literacy.
2-3. Distribute Information on Security Literacy
The importance of security literacy is high, but it is difficult for employees to cover all the new cyber attacks that are increasing every year.
Therefore, by regularly distributing information on security literacy within the company, employees can learn how new cyber attacks are launched and how to deal with them. It is better to regularly distribute new information so that they can respond appropriately.
3. “EXO Security” That Eliminates the Need for Security Literacy
We have discussed security literacy so far, but since humans handle confidential information, it is impossible to prevent cyber attacks 100% even with education and training on security.
If information leaks occur due to low security literacy despite spending money and time on various education programs, companies will feel that employee education is useless.
However, if there is security software that prevents access to malicious sites or protects data even when ransomware attacks occur, cyber attacks can be prevented even if employees’ security literacy is not that high.
Therefore, we recommend “EXO Security” as security software for companies.
EXO Security is an endpoint security solution that uses the cloud to protect confidential data, enables malware and ransomware countermeasures, and makes it easy to manage PC security.
EXO Security mainly has the following functions:
3-1. Malware Detection Function
Uses AI and cloud analysis technology to prevent the inflow of viruses and malware.
3-2. Anti-Ransomware Function
Monitors the system in real-time and blocks access from malicious processes to protected folders.
3-3. Malicious Site Access Blocking Function
Blocks or warns users when they access malicious or non-business-related websites.
In addition to the above functions, it is equipped with various functions such as security checks for business PCs to detect vulnerabilities and detection and encryption of personal information. Security measures can be implemented without problems even if employees have low security literacy.
Moreover, with these functions, EXO Security is available for 5,000 yen per month (excluding tax) for up to 50 licenses.
It is a security software that is especially recommended for companies because it allows them to take security measures at a reasonable price.
Conclusion
This time, we introduced corporate security measures using security literacy.
Since humans handle confidential information, it cannot be said that security incidents will not occur 100%. The security software “EXO Security,” which is equipped with functions to prevent and compensate for human error, will be particularly useful.
However, companies may think that they do not need to conduct security education if they purchase security software, but new cyber attacks are increasing every year, so security software alone cannot cope with the situation if employees are not aware of handling confidential information.
Therefore, in addition to introducing security software, let’s enhance and maintain employees’ security literacy to prevent cyber attacks from third parties.
Antivirus Security Software “EXO Security”
Click here for EXO Security Pricing
Click here for EXO Security Features
Special Feature Page “Is Your Company’s PC Really Safe?”
For any inquiries, please contact us at globalsupport@jiran.com.
