GCA CRI joint

Cyber Basics

A free three week training series for small businesses

by the Global Cyber Alliance and the Cyber Readiness Institute

 

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities providing all manner of essential services. Cybercrime - such as identify theft, malware, phishing scams, ransomware attacks, and email spoofing can cripple small businesses which in turn impacts livelihoods and the global economy. 

 

Cyber Basics for Small Businesses is a free three week instructor-led training series which takes attendees through the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Small Business in non-technical, bite-sized segments, explaining the risks and common methods of attack and offering practical suggestions to avoid falling victim. 

 

In between each weekly session, small businesses can implement tools from within the toolkit to improve their resilience to cyber attack and reinforce the training material. Support is provided via the online GCA Community Forum.

  • April 14th - Understanding cyber risk and how it affects your business. Securing accounts with good password practices.
  • April 21st - Protecting your business from phishing and malware with anti-virus and DNS security.
  • April 28th - The importance of backing up your data and email security.

Sessions will be held each Wednesday at 8:00 New York/13:00 London/14:00 Brussels and repeated again at 13:00 New York/18:00 London/19:00 Brussels. Please choose which session you would like to attend when registering. You will then receive a confirmation email.

  • Registration for this series is now closed. Resources associated with the series can be found here

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AGENDA

Week 1 - Cyber risk, strong audit, patching and passwords

This session covers:

  • What is cyber risk?
  • The GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit
  • Module 1: Know what you have
    • Creating an inventory
  • Module 2: Update your defenses
    • What is patching and why it is so important
  • Module 3: Beyond simple passwords
    • Implement strong passwords and two- factor authentication


Week 2 - Protecting your business from phishing and malware

This session covers:

  • Module 4: Prevent phishing and malware  
    • learn about the different types of viruses and other malware
    • the impact a phishing email can have on a business
    • how anti-virus software protects systems and data
    • understand what DNS is and why it’s important

 

Week 3 - Backing up your data and strong email security

This session covers

  • Module 5: Backup and recover
    • Different methods to back up and why it is important (especially in relation to ransomware attacks)
  • Module 6 - Protect your email and reputation
    • know what DMARC stands for, why it’s important, and what attacks it mitigates          
    • check your own email domain to see if DMARC is enabled

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Why Participate?

The aim of the training series is to guide and support small business owners who are not conversant with cybersecurity in taking a number of basic practical steps which will mitigate the most common cybersecurity risks and protect their business.

This training series will explain what these risks are, how attackers might gain access to systems, accounts or data and what preventative measures to take to protect the business. It follows and references tools contained within the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Small Business.

Participants attending this training series will gain an understanding of cyber threats, associated business risk and will leave with the confidence to take positive action to prevent cyber attack.

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What to Expect

Beginning April 14th, GCA and CRI will conduct three weeks of online training to aid implementation of industry recognised best cyber hygiene practise.

  • Intended participants include small business owners and those responsible for IT within their small business.
  • Weekly one-hour live sessions. 
  • After each session participants will understand the relevance to their business and be confident to take action and implement change within their own environment.
  • Help is provided via the GCA Community Forum.

By the end of the training series, participants may wish to continue on their cybersecurity journey beyond the tools contained within the GCA Cybersecurity Toolkit for Small Business.

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About the Presenters

The Global Cyber Alliance:
GCA, founded in 2015 by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the City of London Police and the Center for Internet Security, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the Internet a safer place by reducing cyber risk. We build programs, tools, and partnerships to sustain a trustworthy Internet to enable social and economic progress for all.

The Cyber Readiness Institute:

CRI brings together the expertise of senior executive leaders at global companies – including Mastercard, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Principal Financial Group, General Motors, PSP Partners, and the Center for Global Enterprise – to develop free resources to improve the cyber readiness of small and medium-sized enterprises to secure global value chains.

© 2024 Global Cyber Alliance