Security Awareness Training, Internet Security for Employees

Get your additional Security Awareness Training course materials here. You'll find the course slides as well as a written course companion. Enjoy!

The threat landscape is increasing. It's important to raise your security awareness because there are more dangers than what your IT or Security department can reasonably cover.

Things can go wrong quicker than you think. This brief lecture will illustrate a real life example of why this is important. I've personally seen something like this example happen 3 times.

This quiz deals with the introductory topics of what and why security awareness is important.

There will be a quiz at the end of all 10 sections to help keep you sharp. You'll do great!

Pointing fingers is the least helpful way to bring everyone together. We're going to start this security awareness training off right by setting appropriate expectations.

If you come across something you don't recognize it's only natural to wonder why you received it and try to figure out the next steps. The bad thing about your amazing inquisitive nature is how exploitative it is.

No one expects you to know every cybersecurity nuance. The best course of action is to get to know your helpful IT or Security department! If IT or Security options are limited, be the champion for training. It will be a little bit challenging, but so worth it.

Locking your computer and keeping your desk clutter-free is probably not something in the forefront of your mind. That's ok. The important thing is from now on, you make it harder for people to potentially run amok in your name.

The User and Device Accountability Quiz covers setup information regarding mindset.

Email is arguably the crux of security awareness programs. Many people think of spam filters as a locked door of an apartment building that only allows residents to unlock and enter. Unfortunately spam protection isn't as definitive as a lock and key. You still need to be on your guard.

Phishing is an attack that sounds incredibly easy to mitigate. When you hear security professionals give tips on how to avoid it you think aloud, That's easy! But you can still get caught off guard with convincing messages. This lecture will give tips on what you're default state of mind should be.

Having a default state of mind that emails you don't recognize are bogus is one thing. What about an incredibly convincing attack? We'll go over a crazy good example in this lecture.

In this next security awareness section, we'll look at trickery that doesn't rely as heavily on technology. Social engineering can take many forms. This lecture covers what social engineering is at the basic level and expands on 3 major categories that you can expect to see.

You'll learn to spot social engineering by thinking of the 3 part formula found in this lecture. We'll also go over 9 of the most common traits of social engineering that should throw up red flags.

This example shows how security controls can be bypassed and how your accounts can be breached without knowing your password! This example illustrates why you can't let your guard down just because you think you're protected.

This bit of security awareness focuses a bit more internally. Leaking data can be accidental. This lecture will provide a couple brief ways data can be accidentally leaked.

Your organization will have the specific procedures to follow but we can review tips on how to be more aware of your communications. This lecture covers the 8 major ways you can help avoid accidental data leakage.

Cloud storage isn't inherently bad. It's proving to be more useful than not. However, you still need to be careful before you decide to move all files to a platform or even use a cloud provider at work without your IT department knowing.

There are a ton of regulations protection certain types of data sets. If you had a list of every data protection regulation the list might look like some form of alphabet soup. This brief lecture doesn't go over everything but it does raise awareness of the importance of regulations and why you should probably care.

Probably the most popular and even controversial security awareness topic is on passwords. Passwords are important since they are often the only line of defense between the public and your accounts, depending on what your accounts access. We'll briefly touch on a few threats on passwords and end the lecture with an amusing list of the top common passwords. If you have a password covered in this list, please change it immediately before doing anything else.

The longer and more complex the password is, the better. We'll briefly go over a few changes happening in the password landscape and cover a few tips on coming up with a good password.

Security questions go beyond passwords to help protect accounts or at least that's what they were designed to do. If you answer security questions truthfully, you might be risking a hack since your information is more available online than you might think.

This security awareness section covers everyone's favorite pastime - web browsing. Ads and sponsored content aren't bad by default but they have the ability to be abused. Just because something is online doesn't mean it's safe or factually true.

It's super easy to get a website these days. Not all websites you come across will be safe. This lecture covers a couple things to look out for before you have your next web surfing session.

Popular topics can be dangerous to search for online. Please be careful what you search for and who you come in contact with online. You may be in for a surprise if you blindly trust everyone and everything you come across.

Mobility seems to be lagging topic in the security awareness realm. The mobile threat landscape is already high but it will only increase as mobile usage increases. Apps can be very dangerous since more information can be process and stored on your mobile device.

Public Wi-Fi is a really good example of something that can be potentially dangerous due to a threat you can't see. You and your provider may not be the only people that can see what your doing on a public wireless connection.

Bring your own device or BYOD is commonplace now. The next hurdle on this mobile chain is the usage policies and expectations of privacy you might face in a professional environment.

Ransomware isn't the first or only piece of malware out there, yet organizations appear to be lagging behind in this area of security awareness. It's understandable since ransomware is extremely dangerous considering it can not only halt your usage of your computer, but it can also potentially erase your digital life quicker than you can say extortion.

The biggest question you'll have after getting hit with ransomware is "should I pay to get my stuff back." The answer isn't always as simple as the 2 absolutes of pay and get stuff back and don't pay and don't get stuff back. Before you send that demand payment in, review these quick 5 points.

The 3 easiest ways to protect against ransomware is antivirus, backups, and caution. We'll expand on those 3 things in this brief lecture.