Cybersecurity has become a top priority for businesses in all sectors,. As you can imagine, raising awareness about cybersecurity and the different types of threats is crucial to protecting your data and systems.

As part of the education process, separating the facts from the fiction can help employees to form a better understanding of not just their responsibilities, but the actions they should take when faced with a potential cyber threat.

As cyber education specialists, we work with companies every day to make the most of their training and we encounter no shortage of cybersecurity myths. Join us as we share some of the biggest myths about cybersecurity in the workplace we encounter:

“Only dodgy websites can give you viruses”

While visiting unsecured and “dodgy” websites will certainly increase the chances of being infected by a virus, legitimate sites can also be a risk.

Hackers can compromise genuine sites and infect them with malicious code that can infect the devices of website visitors. The key to risk reduction, in this case, is ensuring that employees know the telltale signs of a compromised website or emotionally manipulative web copy.

“Our business has already been attacked, it won’t happen again”

This is one of the biggest myths of all and, unfortunately, businesses who take this approach to their cybersecurity are likely to be targeted again and again until adequate cybersecurity solutions are implemented.

Therefore, once one attack has occurred, employees should receive immediate communications and training to not only help them recognise what the different types of attacks look like, but to also understand what to do if there is a repeat attack.

“Cybercriminals only target large businesses”

Another big (and costly!) myth is that small and medium-sized businesses aren’t a target for cybercriminals. After all, why go after a smaller company when the likes of Apple, Amazon and Facebook are out there with billions of pounds on the line?

The truth is that SMEs are often more at risk of an attack; this isn’t simply because they have lower budgets to spend on cybersecurity, there is often a lack of focus on the issue at board level too.

In comparison, larger businesses and organisations will usually have heavily invested in their cyber resilience, making the process of breaching their defenses significantly harder.

“Investing in cybersecurity technology keeps us completely protected”

Unfortunately, even if you have anti-virus and anti-malware software installed, your business is still highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Analysis of the Government’s own data on cybersecurity breaches indicates that 90% of recorded breaches had their roots in human error, highlighting just how important the human element actually is.

“Cybersecurity is the responsibility of the IT department”

Another misconception we see among many staff members is that cybersecurity is solely the responsibility of the IT department. While the IT department are responsible for setting up the right IT infrastructure to protect your business from cyber threats, every single employee also has a responsibility to protect the business from cyberattacks.

Additionally, HR, Internal Communications alongside Learning and Development teams should be involved in creating a culture of employees who know how to protect the company from cyberattacks. Having a strong cybersecurity framework is a collaborative effort across the business.

How to protect your business from cyberattacks

In addition to investing in cybersecurity solutions such as anti-virus, anti-malware and firewalls, your organisation must have a comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training strategy that puts your teams at the heart of your cyber resilience.

Bob’s Culture is our flagship online training solution. It includes our unique Human Vulnerability Assessment to assign training where it’s needed, our award-winning phishing simulations, full access to an engaging and effective course library - even your own organisational LMS.

Curious to learn more? Book a consultation with a member of our team to find out how we can help your organisation reduce its risk, and put an end to the myths.