CompTIA Offers New Cybersecurity Corporate Training Course

Happy last day of National Cyber Security Awareness Month! Or, you know, as some people might be more familiar with saying on Oct. 31, Happy Halloween. Cybercriminals are out their inventing new tricks every day. So CompTIA has a Halloween treat for business entities and other organizations that have a company intranet, or are connected to the internet at any level of operations.

(Yeah, we know — as does CompTIA — those provisions apply to just about every modern corporate or nonprofit entity under the sun.)

On Thursday, the leading IT industry association announced the release of CompTIA CyberSecure, a special resource to help organizations get their employees up to speed about the ABCs of cybersecurity. Employees are among the most penetrable defense points of any corporate computer network, so hardening individuals with basic cybersecurity training is a simple step that could have far reaching consequences.

A free preview of the new training course is available online. CompTIA CyberSecure can be taken over the internet, and lets individuals learn at their own pace, or work through the course at available intervals in their normal work schedule. The course was designed to help individuals address six primary functions:

? Protect yourself and your company from information leaks.
? Know basic categories of information security threats.
? Cultivate a safe information mindset.
? Cultivate a safe environment.
? Implement safety strategies online.
? Protect data and networks.

CompTIA executive Kelly Ricker said in media release announcing CompTIA CyberSecure that cybersecurity requires the involvement of everyone in the enterprise and isn't limited to normal work hours. "Business is conducted at any time, from anywhere, over PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and smartwatches," Ricker said. "The CyberSecure training regimen educates workers on the actions they should take to assure they are communicating and connecting securely in any setting."

There's another important reason to consider cybersecurity training for every employee. According to industry projections, the available global supply of trained cybersecurity professionals is about to be stretched pretty thin: More than 1.5 million cybersecurity job openings will be unfilled by 2019.

It's likely that no amount of awareness training can entirely address that shortfall, but an educated workforce may be the next best thing to a fully-staffed cybersecurity team. And if nothing else, the members of the understaffed security team at least won't have to provide essential cybersecurity training on their own.