September 27, 2024
The World Economic (WE) Forum’s 2025 Global Cybersecurity Outlook unravelled the cyber threat landscape for this year as one that will be shaped by more and more sophisticated attacks with ransomware, social engineering, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered online crimes the top concerns. The same report revealed that data breaches remained at historic levels in 2024 citing more than 3,100 data compromises, a figure that is on par with the previous year’s breaking record. With cybercrime poised to cost businesses around $10.5 trillion this year, protecting an enterprise is deemed crucial for its survival and bottom line. While 81% of c-suite leaders are confident that their organisation is cyber ready, only 66% of frontline managers do revealing a significant gap between executives and managers in their perceptions. Hence, cybercoaching is a strategy to train employees and management to recognise threats and create a strong security culture that can reduce risks, promote operational efficiency, and maintain trust and reputation.
Cybersecurity coaching starts with an assessment of the current cybersecurity situation in the organisation including evaluation of the company’s policies, infrastructure, and employee awareness about best security practices. It also identifies possible threats and risks facing the business and its workers. For example, the dark web presents significant online security risks for enterprises and individuals as it is a hub for cybercriminals, hackers, and stolen data. Crooks often steal sensitive data such as social security numbers, credit card details, usernames, and passwords selling them on the dark web marketplaces. The data can be used for identity theft, fraud, and so on. Furthermore, business data that is exposed on the dark web can harm the privacy of an organisation and clients. Moreover, the dark web is often a space where you can hire hackers and make anonymous transactions including financial ones using cryptocurrencies.
Thus, part of cybercoaching is to tailor the specific needs of a business taking into account the types of data handled, industry, and the risks it is most vulnerable to. Coaching will include holding interactive workshops and sessions where participants are taught the most common cybersecurity risks. These topics will include learning how to identify phishing mails, securing personal and business devices/equipment, and implementation of password management and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Naturally, the goal of cybersecurity coaching is not only to train employees on the basics, but also to foster a culture of security awareness. As such, the staff is trained to keep security a part of their daily routines whether working in person or remotely.
Tracking progress is critical in ensuring the effectiveness of the coaching programme determining key metrics such as number of phishing attempts identified, rate of security compliance, or number of incidents reported and resolved. Based on the results, the cybersecurity coaching programme can be adjusted to address new emerging threats or other challenges identified. To illustrate, AI-powered online crimes are on the rise with highly targeted phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, and AI-driven social engineering expected to dominate the scene. Around 85% of cybersecurity experts credit online attacks based on AI. Even the most advanced cybersecurity systems can be outsmarted by AI-driven strikes. For instance, AI can create deep fake video and audio that can be used to bypass identity verifications or scan for weak passwords across accounts quicker than humans could before launching a massive attack.
Hence, it imperative that companies deploy defensive tools to monitor their networks and systems in real time. AI can be used by companies to detect unusual behaviour and potential threats. Machine learning models can analyse huge volumes of data and look for patterns indicating malicious activity. It can also help predict potential attacks and automate the response to detected threats. Additionally, employees must be trained how to identify sophisticated phishing attempts including those that are AI-powered.
Investing in cybersecurity coaching can protect your business by empowering your team to recognise potential threats and take the necessary steps to avoid them. The right training, technology, and policies can prevent cyberattacks from happening and help maintain a secure environment for a company’s data and operations.
