Phishing
Ransomware & The Birth of a CyberSchool
Cybersecurity needs to be considered a life skill. Technology has blanketed every corner of our lives. None of us can escape it. We need to understand how to use this technology responsibly to protect ourselves, our families, and the data we collect from others.
The world has gone crazy with cyber-crime. All small businesses and healthcare practices such as dental and medical offices are at risk. They need robust cybersecurity protections and cybersecurity training.
Why?
Cyber criminals know that smaller businesses do not have the same budgets as large organizations, and they know that the teams that work in these businesses don’t have the level of training that they need. This makes these employees very easy to trick.
There are a number of small businesses that collect very sensitive data. Healthcare practices, for example, are a perfect target for cybercriminals. They know that access to that data is urgent, and so using tactics like ransomware are very effective in getting dentists and doctors to pay. They often don’t have appropriate backup systems either and many end up having to pay ransoms.
I started to see this transition and exponential growth starting in around 2012 specifically in the healthcare industry, and by the end of 2014 we saw a huge increase in ransomware.
This is a malware that’s being used to encrypt your data, essentially holding it hostage until you pay a fee to have it released. In the past two years especially, ransomware is allowing for cybercriminals to extract data and hold that ransom as well. In this scenario, the cybercriminals threaten to publish the data if the fee is not paid by a certain timeline.
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Ransomware is a threat to small business but education can help bigtime.
A report last week done by NUSPIRE regarding ransomware shows that in Q2 of 2021 there was a 55% increase in ransomware activity.
We’re really at a place where getting security awareness training and ransomware prevention training really is a required life skill. Cyber security training must be considered a life skill because technology has blanketed every corner of our lives and the threats are only increasing.
None of us can escape it. We’ve embraced technology in such a huge way. Everyone has a smart phone. Many people have tablets, laptops and desktops and then let’s take a look at all of the connected devices we have in our homes. We know now that even our TV can be hacked, our thermostats, our security cameras and so on.
Understanding cybersecurity is a life skill everyone needs.
It makes sense that this knowledge needs to happen for everyone, just like learning how to drive a car. And so that’s been my mission for a long time, to create a cyberschool. Of course it takes a long time to create something like that but we launched it and even won a 2021 global infosec award for the program.
My passion is health care and small business. We’ve been working for the last five years to put together content, with the right types of learning modules that will really be very ‘sticky’, meaning it’s easy to consume (learn) and easy to remember and use right away.
Micro-learning supports long term retention by up to 80%
(RPS Research, Raytheon.com)
We know that big, long courses once a year don’t work, but that micro-learning does. So, we have built all of our content around it being only one hour or less. In fact, the bulk of our training modules are just five minutes long, delivered once per week throughout the year and this is extremely effective.
https://youtu.be/BfrNZks9VTs
We have an award-winning automated system for security awareness training content delivery. It’s easy to set up. It’s easy to monitor and maintain, and it makes an exponential difference in people’s understanding while working with these types of devices and data.
With over 200 micro-learning cybersecurity topics, it’s like the ‘Netflix’ of online security training. There you can learn about everything from online scams, to phishing, ransomware, telephone, and romance scams, and much more.
Let’s face it, data breaches now affect every single one of us. There’s very few of us that have not had our email involved in a cyber-breach. Most of us have a huge number of online accounts which increases your risk.
Today there are thousands of different types on online scams, and we are here to help you understand how to avoid them. The Alexio CyberSchool with award-winning security awareness training is now Canada’s leading training hub for dentists, doctors, start-ups, and small businesses.
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No matter what business you’re in, we’ve got the easy affordable training you need for yourself and your team. Learn more at https://getalexio.com/cyberschool, or reach out to me directly to ask questions, book custom training, or book me as a speaker. Here’s my speaker page https://getalexio.com/anne-genge
