Identify and minimize risks by increasing employee security awareness with Aftra’s new Security Campaigns

Have you or any of your colleagues ever used your work email to sign up for a non-work related service or product online?

If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. Many of us are guilty of this seemingly innocent activity.

But the unfortunate reality is that wherever your personal data is stored, it increases your digital footprint. And if that data is company data, employee activity increases the digital footprint of the organization they work for, therefore expanding their attack surface and the potential risk of a cyber attack.

The good news is that this is a relatively easy threat to tackle. 

Identify potential risks 

You can start by identifying the potential risk that employee activity poses to your organization and get them involved in the process.

As we know, cybercrime stems from a combination of many different factors, but the most prominent of those are human-related vulnerabilities. Over 80% of data breaches that happen today involve some form of human interaction. But, oftentimes, organizations don’t have insight into how much risk is associated with employee activity. And employees often fail to understand the pivotal role they play in their organization’s cybersecurity landscape, including how their actions and digital footprint can have large consequences.

That’s why it’s critical to both identify and address the risks introduced by employees to combat cyber threats. Many different factors can unintentionally transform employees into security risks. Recognizing these potential risks and providing education to your team are essential steps in strengthening your company's cybersecurity and minimizing its attack surface.

Get your employees engaged with security 

One of the best ways that we’ve found here at Aftra to do this, is to get employees engaged with their own risk analysis. Employee awareness of cyber security and interest in the field varies greatly. In spite of obligatory security awareness training, the skills gap remains. Watching numerous videos or reading about potential cyber threats doesn’t seem to bring the message home in many cases.

Although these measures are both well intentioned and compulsory, companies are still subjected to daily cyber crimes due to the lack of security awareness amongst their employees. Using passive and uninteresting forms of training oftentimes doesn’t sink in until one sees the proof of their actions. Us humans need to be shown exactly how a hacker can use our activity to exploit us and our employers– and more importantly how easily we can fix it.

It’s also important not to point fingers and lay blame on individuals. Employees can not be held responsible for their lack of awareness. The gap in security education is due to a systematic failure in training those skills at the same rate as digital threats grow. Companies need to step up to the plate and empower their team through insightful and engaging training material. Only then can the organization stand unified in creating a stronger and more resilient cyber security culture.

Enter Aftra’s new Security Campaigns

We realized that the best way we can help IT and security managers to deliver the message and get employees engaged in their training was to create a tool that allows employees to see the real impact their activity can have.

This is where Aftra’s new Security Campaigns come in.

Security Campaigns allow IT managers to create campaigns within the Aftra system that show each employee their digital footprint by telling them exactly where their company accounts are registered online and if their password has been leaked. Seeing this information right in front of them is a huge eye opener. When one is shown proof of their online activity and the threat it poses, there’s an “aha” moment and it becomes difficult for them not to take the recommended steps to minimize the risk associated with it, such as activating MFA on all accounts and limiting where they use their company accounts. 

Security Campaigns also give each employee a “risk score”. This score is calculated based on their digital footprint (services used), password leaks, and their impact within the company. For example a CFO or CEO would have a higher impact due to their leadership status. By assessing each employee's risk score, identifying those more susceptible to threats like phishing attacks, and getting them involved, IT managers can aid them by creating targeted cyber security training programs and prevention strategies. 

Here’s a short overview of what Security Campaigns help IT and Security accomplish:

• Increase general knowledge and awareness: Assess employee awareness of cyber security. Limited knowledge can lead to risks like phishing susceptibility.
• Manage access levels: Evaluate employee access to data and systems. Untrained individuals with high access pose a higher risk.
• Gauge technical literacy: Understand technical skills. Lower literacy can increase vulnerability to cyber scams.
• Conduct training and awareness: Perform regular cyber security training to keep staff updated on threats and safe practices.
• Incidence monitoring and response: Implement systems for activity monitoring and establish a clear incident response plan.

Interested in seeing our Security Campaigns and other features in action?

Start empowering your team with security awareness and strengthening your organization’s defenses through automated scanning, monitoring, and continuous vulnerability detection.

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