News

Government data shows that last year alone, 43% of UK businesses reported experiencing a cyber security breach or online attack, that’s the over 600,000 organisations.

To help reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and increase awareness around IT security threats Ward’s IT team has recently introduced a new cyber security awareness programme across the business.

Working with a specialist provider, Boxphish, all Ward employees now receive regular cyber awareness training. This includes short online training courses and quizzes covering subjects such as phishing emails, suspicious links and attachments, password security, ransomware, social engineering and the safe handling of company information.

The training and follow up exercises, which will continue throughout the year, are designed to be relatively short and straightforward, rather than lengthy technical courses. It aims to help keep best practice cyber advice front of mind with regular, bite-sized training modules and best practice cyber security advice.

Steve Adam, Head of IT at Ward said: “Ultimately, we’d like cyber security to become part of normal day-to-day working rather than something people only think about when IT sends an email. If somebody receives an unusual email, link, request for information or login prompt, we’d much rather they question it and report it than assume it’s genuine.

“Alongside the training, we are also carrying out simulated phishing exercises. Phishing techniques are becoming increasingly convincing and even experienced users can be caught by a well-designed message. The simulations are safe test emails designed to resemble the kinds of rogue messages employees may encounter in the real world. The idea isn’t to catch people out or penalise anyone, it’s about building familiarity with the warning signs and encouraging people to stop and question something that doesn’t look quite right. It allow us to measure how well people recognise suspicious emails and, importantly, give employees an opportunity to learn in a safe environment.”

The new training measures form part of a wider investment in strengthening Ward’s online security and supports its wider cyber security commitments, including the recently awarded Cyber Essentials accreditation, which demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to protecting IT systems and taking all reasonable measures to safeguard data.

Steve added: “We are investing in improving the technical protection around our systems while improving awareness amongst the people using them. Technology can block a large proportion of threats, but employees are an equally important part of our defence. This gives us a measurable way of seeing how awareness improves over time to keep everyone safe online.”