With the November 6 midterm Election Day fast approaching, more and more people are being employed by, or volunteering for, the thousands of political campaigns now underway. But how many of them have had any cybersecurity awareness training?
According to many security experts and government officials, efforts to hack into campaign-related computer systems are expected, so a shortfall in cybersecurity training clearly puts the democratic process at risk. Fortunately, the first step to addressing this problem is relatively painless: put everyone through a cybersecurity training program. And the good news is, there are free tools to help!
One such program is provided free of charge by ESET, one of the world’s largest endpoint security software companies. The online course takes about an hour and teaches participants how to identify and defend against the main cybersecurity threats, like the phishing attacks that have compromised several campaigns in the past.
IT pros and other administrators can sign up to access the training materials HERE (so they can provide to their staff/team). For individuals, staff, and elected officials that want to jump on and take it themselves, use this link HERE.
Any campaign worker or volunteer – and even any elected official – can register online, take the training anytime, anywhere, and then produce a certificate of completion for the campaign manager. Since ESET launched this training program in May of 2017, over 17,000 people have taken this course. From city governments to educational institutions, this free training has been extremely popular. So much so it’s recommended in Harvard University’s cybersecurity certificate program curriculum, and has been touted by tech press over the last year.
“This is a great way to alert everyone on your campaign to the very real threats that are out there, while turning potential victims into digital defenders,” says ESET Security Researcher Stephen Cobb. He adds: “any political campaign now has the ability to document that people working on the campaign have gone through basic cybersecurity training, which has to be a win for all candidates.”
Cyber training modules often cost a business thousands of dollars and up, depending on topics, company size, and subscription plans offered. All the topics covered in the ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training are core topics employees need to know, explained in user-friendly language, and can be completed in under 90 minutes.
Topics in the training modules include everything from how to spot phishing emails and password best practices, to lesser-known but important topics like social engineering, two-factor authentication and Internet of Things (IoT) security. At the end of the modules, employees can easily report to their manager they have completed the course, and receive a certificate of completion.
The cybersecurity training modules are available to anyone, anytime, completely free at eset.com/cybertraining.