Security Awareness Training

Security Awareness Training provides staff members with the knowledge they need to identify threats and act appropriately when confronted with potential security challenges.

Security awareness and cyber threat training for dental team members is crucial to all dental practices, especially those with sensitive electronic data like electronic charting, practice management software, digital imaging, etc. Cybercriminals are relentless in their efforts to carry out their attacks, and while AV companies have created sophisticated products to defend against a variety of attacks, their products are not the catch-all for fighting cybercrime. Criminals are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts and businesses with electronic data need to do everything they can to stay ahead of them. In the digital era, criminals have become masterminds at forming social engineering attacks to trick their victims, a scheme that no antivirus can protect against.

Security awareness and cyber threat training for dental team members is crucial to all dental practices, especially those with sensitive electronic data like electronic charting, practice management software, digital imaging, etc. Cybercriminals are relentless in their efforts to carry out their attacks, and while AV companies have created sophisticated products to defend against a variety of attacks, their products are not the catch-all for fighting cybercrime. Criminals are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts and businesses with electronic data need to do everything they can to stay ahead of them. In the digital era, criminals have become masterminds at forming social engineering attacks to trick their victims, a scheme that no antivirus can protect against.

Anti-virus and other technologies play a crucial role in defending a dental practice network, but it’s important to remember that a layered security strategy is necessary for adequate protection.  We must not forget that without appropriate training, dental team members cannot effectively act as that first layer of defense.

Security awareness training not only helps dental staff learn how to spot malicious attempts by cybercriminals, but it’s also a requirement of many insurance policies, and may also be a required for regulatory compliance. A lack of training will open the door for cybercriminals and may result in a breach, causing potentially significant fines and penalties as well as likely damage to a practice’s reputation.

Spear fishing attacks, have recently been particularly effective when used to target smaller organizations. In fact, over half of all spear phishing attacks are specifically aimed at small or medium sized businesses, like dental practices. Spear phishing attacks aimed at enterprises are actually less common, and often blocked by enterprise level security processes. For smaller organizations, the ability of individual staff members to recognize and avoid a spear fishing attack is critical for data breach prevention.

Cryptolocker type attacks are also particularly common in dental practices, and a number of practices have been impacted by these types of security breaches in recent years. Often Cryptolocker type exploits are initiated through fishing or spear fishing attacks, and it is only through appropriate staff training and response that these attacks are avoided and averted.

Free Online Security Awareness Training for Dental Practices

All Compudent dental practice clients are invited to access comprehensive online security awareness training for all of their staff members, for free. This comprehensive training program will inform and engage dental staff on security best practices. Team members will learn about phishing scams, ransomware, phones scams and the dangers of public Wi-Fi. Our Security Awareness Training covers a range of security topics that increases your team’s security awareness and protects the practice!

Delivered as short online video courses, with attached quick quizzes, our Security Awareness Training allows team members to learn at their own pace, as time permits. Dental practice owners or office managers can track progress through the online security training portal.

The best way to minimize the potential risk of a data breach is to work with educated team members!  Staff training on cyber security best practices and how to recognize possible threats, is an important step in the implementation of a robust data security strategy. If you are not setup with a Security Awareness Training Account at Compudent, then make the request and get started today. This resource is provided free of charge to all existing Compudent dental practice clients.

Team Security Platform

The Team Security Platform (TSP) is a subscription service portal that combines a number of resources which reinforce with team members the appropriate use of computer and network resources, and the security concerns involving these technologies.

The Team Security Platform (TSP) is the best way to ensure that the human factors involved with network security are being addressed in your practice. Included in the bundled product are resources that help dental practices train end users on IT Security and identify and implement the proper safeguards to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and sensitive patient data.  The Team Security Platform (TSP):

– Provides online security awareness training and testing to all staff members

– Provides security awareness micro-training modules for all staff on a weekly basis

– Includes monthly security awareness newsletters

– Performs simulated Phishing attacks on/with your staff members, testing and educating during the process

– Creates and maintains written information security policies (WISP) with staff member acknowledgement.

– Performs and documents a detailed Security Risk Assessment/Security Audit

– Includes access to the Security Documentation Portal

The Team Security Platform is a subscription service, re-committed yearly, which makes comprehensive training, testing and skills improvement available to all dental team members, with administrative portal access for the practice owner or office manager, providing feedback on progress and vulnerability assessement.

A continuous cycle of assessment, education, reinforcement, and measurement maximizes learning and lengthens retention.  Initial IT Security Awareness Training and Testing, requiring about 1hr of total time commitment per staff member, in small blocks of time, is then reinforced with ongoing weekly Security Awareness Micro Training and Weekly Security Newsletters. Measurement of staff responses to cyber threats is achieved through periodic test phishing attacks, intended to provoke the staff members to think continuously about their responses to cyber attacks. Employee Vulnerability Assessments help evaluate the relative abilities of staff members to avoid and mitigate cyber security issues, and continuous feedback helps the practice keep security issues and cyber attack prevention front of mind.

Request more information and sign up for a yearly Team Security Platform (TSP) subscription, now.