The cover of last month’s Texas REALTORS® Magazine features an article entitled, “No plan for cybersecurity? Criminals love that. Protect your business today.” Cybersecurity and threats, often presented through simple, but malicious, email messages made to appear as if they were coming from a co-worker or member, have increased significantly in volume and severity over the last few years and our organization is not immune. While we have a multi-layered approach towards identifying and dealing with threats, staff training is still a prudent and necessary approach to ensuring we are protecting the assets of the organization.
As such, Texas REALTORS® is launching a new, mandatory cybersecurity training program in partnership with a group called KnowBe4 to help us all become aware of the types of risks that we may encounter in our day-to-day work and become adept and recognizing threats and avoiding actions that could cause a problem.
What does the program entail? While there are tons of resources available through the KnowBe4 program, our focus is to keep the training element simple, hitting the high points and not requiring a significant time commitment on the part of each staff member. Training will consist of periodic (every couple of weeks) short videos (2-5 minutes.). Similar short, quick training opportunities may also be included from time to time. Also included through the program are periodic simulated phishing email that allow us all to implement what we’ve learned and allow us to determine threat levels to guide our training strategies.
What's next? Soon you will receive an email from Texas REALTORS® notifying you that you have been enrolled in the KnowBe4 training platform. When a training video is assigned, you will receiver an email notification alerting you to the assignment. Remember, these short videos are mandatory, so you will receive follow-up reminders both by email and from your supervisor until you've watched it.
Questions? Please feel free to reach out to Mike Barnett, Pat Wimberly or Quinn Neal for more information on the program.
Comments