Remember the “I Love You” virus? The first truly global computer virus, it disrupted the operations of businesses and government agencies all over the world, from Ford Motor Company and Merrill Lynch to government agencies such as the Pentagon and the British Parliament. All in the name of love.

It began simply enough. Someone in the office received an email with “ILOVEYOU” in the subject line and a prompt to open the love letter. What appeared to be a text file was actually an executable program, and the virus quickly sent copies of itself to everyone in their email address book. No one could resist opening the “love letter.” Simple, but effective. In the twenty years since, cybercriminals have gotten much more sophisticated.

This is just one of the examples of how the majority of data breaches happen due to human error. Cybercriminals are pros and know how to convince otherwise trusted employees to do things they shouldn’t, to divulge information they shouldn’t. Take email spam and phishing. Most employees know better, yet they open them anyway. In some instances, they will even get them out of the spam folder. Why? Because cybercriminals know what they are doing, and they write emails in such a way that they are hard to resist.

Turn your employees into a valuable first line of defense against cyber threats with our security awareness training. Your team will have the tools and techniques to more easily identify threats.You can protect your firm or business by creating a security-focused culture with cybersecurity awareness training and education.