Recent cyberattacks on corporations like Target, Banner Health and most recently public voter data have influenced corporations to take a much more offensive approach to their internal cybersecurity practices.  As companies like Uber are shifting away from a traditional brick and mortar organization to a more cloud based platform, the need to protect consumer information has increased exponentially.  Modern day ways of doing business now have much less to do with cash as they do a smart phone transaction.

To avoid any setbacks or loss of consumer trust, companies have been forced to rethink their approach to protecting consumer data from a “wait and see” to having skilled and educated employees in place who now take preemptive measures to test strategies and best practices before a breach occurs.

A recent study by CompTIA, a leading resource for the IT industry, has shown that companies now consider security one of the primary responsibilities of their IT team.  Larger organizations may have a subset of individuals whose sole responsibility is protecting consumer data while other smaller companies rely on well trained individuals with Network+ or CISSP certifications leading the helm.

Long gone are the days where a simple firewall was sufficient security. Corporations must now assess vulnerability of data not only within but also vet the security capabilities of vendors with whom they work.  An example of this would be third party credit card processors or cloud based CRM platforms like Salesforce who are trusted daily with detailed consumer information.

Regardless of the security measures a company takes, CompTIA has also found that the most common source of breached data is caused by human error—specifically untrained employees.  Internal efforts to educate employees on cybersecurity best practices often fall short, creating a need for classroom based learning in a short amount of time.

Advanced Business Learning, a licensed State of Arizona postsecondary vocational school and a CompTIA Authorized Training Provider, offers a wide variety of courses which properly prepare workforces to meet today’s challenges in security management. Companies who wish to improve the knowledge base of their workforce can enroll employees in entry-level to advanced CompTIA courses which establish best practices in troubleshooting, networking and security across a variety of devices in a 5-day bootcamp. For those IT departments on the offensive, they may consider the investment in having their top IT professionals becoming ISC2 certified and ultimately becoming a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).