A Complete Guide to Corporate Security Awareness

12 October 2020

Building an organisation that has a substantial and robust security awareness policy is paramount for a lot of businesses. It ensures the protection of your organisation, creates a safe environment for staff, and allows the business to function at a more efficient level.

Our expertise lies in delivering security training to organisations centred around increasing the knowledge and skills of staff, ultimately aiming to improve safety all-round. There’s a lot to consider, so we’ve compiled this guide for organisations to understand better corporate security and how to make necessary improvements in your business.

This guide will layout what corporate security awareness means for your organisation, including cybersecurity and safety, and how training is so essential for protecting your business, as well as its assets, staff and data.

We will cover:

• The basics of corporate security awareness and how it can prevent security incidents
• Why ongoing training is vital to successfully implementing your security policies
• Cybersecurity, information security and other modern threats
• Where to learn more to protect your business, staff and assets in this ever-changing world

What is corporate security awareness?

Corporate security awareness, in a nutshell, is a formal way of informing your team, staff or community of your computer security measures and how they must be treated.

Here are some questions you could consider corporate security awareness within your organisation:

• Are all staff well-informed about security arrangements whilst at work?
• How well-prepared are your staff to prevent possible security breaches?
• What are your policies relating to access control, wearing of badges, signing in?
• Are your staff complying with computer security procedures?
• Does your team understand the importance and reasons behind corporate security policies?
• How do you communicate security arrangements to staff and ensure they’re understood and fully complied with?

Security awareness in the workplace usually includes detailed documentation, training and refresher training on an annual basis to ensure all employees are aware of security guidelines and the reasoning behind them.

Corporate security awareness is training designed for any-sized organisation and its staff. All job roles require some level of security. Whether that’s merely accessing IT systems, entering secure premises using a pass/swipe card or dealing with visitors, all of these tasks require heightened security awareness.

Why is Corporate Security Awareness Important?

Whether it’s in a corporate setting or any other setting, there is always a level of awareness to the security that should be established.

Here are a few industry-specific examples that highlight the importance of security awareness in the workplace:

• Retail staff may not have dedicated security guards, so it’s up to them to deter and prevent theft from shoplifters.
• Hotel and hospitality staff are responsible for safeguarding guests during their stay. For example, revealing a guest’s hotel room number to another visitor may have serious consequences.
• Offices, call centres and data centres need to ensure that only authorised individuals access their computer systems and that those individuals are not compromised to reveal sensitive data or personal information.
• Public transport, venues, theatres, museums and exhibition centres have been previous targets of security incidents, violent attacks, thefts, and other criminal activities. It’s incredibly important that staff are vigilant in all public-facing roles.

We offer training for both security professionals and in a corporate setting with interest-free funding options. Find out more.

Cyber Security Awareness

In the modern world, all critical data is held digitally. Whilst it’s more efficient and inherently more secure than storing data in paper format, information security brings additional challenges to businesses.

Cybersecurity awareness is specifically related to computers and technology used in a business. This includes server protection, access to workstations, staff devices and any electronic data being used within an organisation.

For a lot of businesses that rely heavily on data, such as those who operate entirely online – e-commerce stores, online banks, gaming services and cloud providers – cybersecurity is critical. In this respect, the level of cybersecurity awareness and technology used can also be used for marketing. Yet, mistakes made in cybersecurity at a large scale can have extremely negative PR consequences.

Making your employees aware of your cybersecurity measures allows them to learn how to reduce the risk of any potential breaches, embarrassing mistakes, or plain old human error.

Any security incident can also be identified and resolved if adequate cybersecurity awareness is conducted within a business.

You can read more about our cyber awareness training available on this page.

Making the Business Case for Corporate Security Awareness

The most crucial reason as to why we need corporate security awareness is to protect your staff and your company’s other assets.

A lot of our clients reach out to us due to a potential direct threat in the business that has surfaced or to provide a more informative way to better prepare staff in case of a security breach.

As attackers become smarter and develop new ways of breaking into systems there comes new ways of protecting your business. It’s essential to be continually aware of potential risks there are when using a computer for business use, connecting to servers that store sensitive information, and sticking to processes designed to keep that data safe.

Whether due to a direct threat to an organisation or more for peace of mind, our training programmes provide an interesting and informative way to better prepare staff.

What should Security Awareness Training focus on?

At a basic level, all security training should include the most common security issues that can occur in your specific workplace environment.

Any staff who use or access computers should receive cybersecurity awareness training. It should be a requirement for organisations to protect their staff and visitors, including sub-contractors.

This should focus on breaches such as Adware, Spyware, Phishing, Malware, password security and physical security practices when using laptops and mobiles phones – e.g. locking screens and using secure internet connections.

Ensure that your staff are trained in how to spot phishing emails, how to create a secure password that cannot be guessed easily, how to lock their computer correctly and to avoid downloading any files that are not related to work use.

In a more physical presence, for example, in a storefront, employees will be trained on the level that is required of them. Most city centres have an inter-store radio network that allows businesses to communicate with each other to prevent theft and other crime. However, these devices are ineffective if staff do not know how and when to use them.

Since 2003 we have delivered training to hundreds of employees with the emphasis on developing a security awareness training program and increasing duty of care. Some examples include:

• Conflict management to engineers
• Situational awareness to the financial sector
• Self-defence and conflict management to retail security officers
• Conflict training to retail staff
• Information security training to offices

See more security training options for organisations on our dedicated page.

Additional benefits of security training

It’s important to conduct enterprise security awareness training so that every member of staff is fully aware of the duty of care they should uphold.

Some other benefits of security training include:

• Encourages best practice in other areas of work
• Enables and facilitates a safer working environment
• Contributes to staff satisfaction levels
• Better communication between team members
• Continued professional development for your staff

Carrying out a corporate security awareness training program to staff and managers on an annual basis will allow everyone to keep ahead of the latest methods attackers are using and security professionals are aiming to eradicate.

Reducing the number of potential attacks and security breaches will reduce overall costs on the business from handling any suspicious activity and/or potential threats.

It also gives staff peace of mind that your company is taking security and protection seriously. Building a well-protected business is seen as a huge positive for employees, sub-contractors and other visitors to the business.

Remember how poorly managed security policies can affect your reputation? This is another serious risk to consider; marketing is a massive part of any business, and poor security practices can undo the work of any great marketing team with one single breach.

Summary

With all these factors considered, there’s no denying how vital it is to build a secure and safe working environment. This also involves training your staff in the many security awareness topics regularly.

Not only does it promote a safe working environment, but it brings a sense of openness and positivity in terms of creating a secure security system that protects all of your data and other sensitive information.

We provide a wide range of courses to suit your size of organisation and the depth of detail required. Take a look at our brochures to learn more about our security awareness courses.