While the cybersecurity team plays a critical role in the fight against data breaches, a company’s employees are often the first line of defense (or failure). The numbers back this up: IBM’s 2024 data breach report shows cybersecurity employee training is the second most cost-effective mitigation strategy, reducing the cost of the average data breach by $232,867. When companies implemented high levels of training, the effect was even more noticeable, with organizations saving $1.5 million (33.9%) more per breach.

Employee training starts with cybersecurity awareness programs, which teach employees how to recognize cyberattacks and prevent or mitigate cyber incidents and data breaches. The ultimate goal of cybersecurity awareness is to minimize human error and reduce an organization’s chances of suffering a data breach.

Kara Sherrer, writing for TechRepublic Premium, investigates 10 topics every cybersecurity awareness training program should cover and why they matter so much.

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6. DEVICE MANAGEMENT AND REMOVABLE MEDIA

Desktop computers may have once reigned supreme, but portable devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones have now taken over. While these devices are quite convenient to use, their very portability presents a greater cybersecurity risk, as these devices are more easily hacked, lost, and/or stolen.

Besides instituting a robust endpoint security approach and mobile device management policy, you should also educate your employees about cybersecurity best practices for protecting their devices. These practices include password-protecting devices, disabling web cameras by default, and using geofencing to track the location of missing devices.

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TIME SAVED: Crafting this content required 22 hours of dedicated writing, editing, research, and design.