We’ve all heard the saying “practice makes perfect.” We hear it so frequently because it’s true.
For example, CMC’s performance on cybersecurity phishing attempts—both planned tests and actual—has been better than the industry average. During the last six months, CMC employees have responded to phishing attempts at a 5.4 percent rate versus the industry average of 29.4 percent. During that period, 89 employees have clicked on suspicious emails, two attachments have been opened and 204 emails were reported as phishing attempts.
“That’s really good performance,” said Kevin Terry, director, IT. “That shows that all of the training that we’ve provided employees has increased their knowledge about the many ways cybercriminals attempt to gain access to CMC information.”
But, it’s not perfect noted Paul Mackay, chief information officer.
“We’re dealing with an issue where just one, I repeat, just one click is all it takes to allow cybercriminals access to CMC information or customer information,” Mackay said. “From there, they can steal money from the company or our customers and damage CMC’s reputation with our utility partners.”
That’s why CMC places such an emphasis on cybersecurity training. Fortunately, the latest round of trainings, which are due to be completed by November 19, are both educational and entertaining. Currently, only 19 percent of CMC employees have completed the training.
The latest training not only features the adventures of cyberthief turned good guy Mark, but we are introduced to some new training that is an homage to the popular cult classic movie Office Space called Restricted Intelligence. There’s some real laughs in the pair of Restricted Intelligence modules that may lighten your day.
There’s also an emphasis on phishing, one of the most common ways to trick people into revealing personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
“It’s really important that we maintain our efforts to crack down on phishing,” Mackay said. “One of the best ways is to report suspicious emails using the button at the the top of your Outlook tool bar. This will alert CMC of potential attacks that may be more widespread than just an attempt at your computer.”