Information Security Awareness. Definition, History, and Types

In the current business industry, every organization investing enough on security awareness, as it turns out to be a most important asset. We will try to explain everything in this article that is required to safeguard a business against the weakness of the security.

 Definition of Security Awareness.

Security awareness is the attitude members and knowledge of any company that holds concerning the security of the physical and specifically informational properties of that business. The proper security training for all the employees of an organization is essential. Especially, at the time of joining the organization and then time to time when required or periodically, monthly and very commonly by annually.

We can say it is a proper procedure to educate and train the employees that what is IT protection? It includes three jobs, and that is 1) Individual duty for the security policies of the company, 2) Proper educational Programs for the employees timely, and 3) Methods to audit all these efforts. These valuable points are the main element of the program for security awareness, but the important thing is that every employee must be accountable to make the security measures effective for the organization.

There are four stages that we can break down for the Security awareness, and these are;

  1. Defining the recent status of security.
  2. Emerging and making a good security awareness program.
  3. Organizing these program for all the employees
  4. Evaluating the progress of the program and make changes in the program if necessary

The History of security awareness

The history of the Internet and cyber-security is growing together. Criminals have been engaged with the internet for their advantage since the commencement of the World Wide Web when it was a mainstream resource. In 1980, the first time we found a criminal activity when a group named 414s was caught for breaking approximately sixty different systems. This happened with the devices of “Los Alamos National Laboratory” and “Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.” The government responded with making laws for this fraud and passed an Act to prevent and punish the malicious team. A team of Computer Emergency Response was made to investigate the rising amount of hacks and methods for protection. Also, some other cases in the 1990s, where hackers attacks on government agencies and multinational organizations. After this, the Internet did not consider an extensive tool more. In 1997, Yahoo! A great search engine was also affected. To prevent cyber-attacks, the Department of U.S. Justice presented the NIPC - National Infrastructure Protection Center. Its duty was to defense the country’s transportation, telecommunications, and technology computers from hackers.

Security Awareness Types

Here we are discussing some different types of Security Awareness for understanding what it is.

1)     The Security Awareness Budget

If we want to know about the seriousness of a company for security awareness, we have to see the budget that is allocated to this. A clear thing is the awareness of security is just a part of a practical protection plan. Other parts contain:

  1. Measuring the vulnerabilities of the company properly
  2. Creation of a security policy
  3. Accurate Investment in the technology of the security

Companies have to spend enough on security investment as they spend on the software and some other security tech as the importance of security awareness is very high. If the employees are easy targets of phishing attacks, then no software and application is helpful

2)     Search for the Services of a Professional

If a company has no measures for security awareness at the right time, a professional should be hired to take these responsibilities. Professionals make the company secure and running and ensure a very quick structure for the time that is lost. Regardless of whether you have invested in a security awareness approach and different measures, it's as yet not a bad idea to expedite a consultant occasionally to check whether there are any areas where improvement is required.

3)     Create a Plan and Related Documentation

There may be different plans for each organization, but some feature of the plan should include the following versions;

  1. Educate security awareness program to the new employees and roles
  2. A statement of mission for the security awareness that clarifies its need
  3. Drawing the roles of security awareness team
  4. Orientations to company security policies
  5. An activities calendar for the whole year that consists of ongoing activities

4)     Organizational Security Awareness Structure

This vital type of security awareness can disturb every employee in the company. A company must need to hire a security team or at least a professional who can execute important programs of necessary security awareness. If not, the security awareness converts a chore that helpless.

5)     Using Media Sources for the Message Reinforcement

We have seen companies send reminder emails for security awareness from time to time. We don’t think that emails are a non-effective thing. It works perfectly well, and all employees need a reminder again and again. But a company should also use different forms of media to take care of the messages about security awareness that never overlooked by any employee.

For example, the calendar of events, where a security expert enlightening important topics, Videos that can be sent via emails, Tests of the employees and, physical reminders in the office premises also works.

6)     The Top-down Approach

The Top-down Approach is an important requirement of security awareness as employees themselves not able to learn the measures that they have to apply and take. This knowledge of security awareness should be effectively carry over to make sure that each employee is fully aware and also able to keep the company safe.

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7)     Highlight Recent Attacks

We can consider this is as a vital practice of security awareness. On the other hand, ensure that all sorts of attacks properly highlighted, not only national news. The reason for this attitude is to display the company’s employees how widespread such attacks for the company. Try to tell the employees about the other companies in the industry, how they prevent such attacks.