Importance of cybersecurity training for employees

The financial impact is growing too. The average cost of a data breach in Canada reached $6.98 million in 2025, up more than 10% from the previous year. For small businesses, the numbers may not be as high, but the risks are real. A BDC survey in 2024 found that 73% of Canadian SMBs experienced a cybersecurity incident, ranging from phishing scams to ransomware attacks.

The good news? Training employees on cybersecurity threats can make a big difference. It helps prevent cybersecurity issues before they happen and prepares your team to respond effectively if they do.

What is cybersecurity training for employees?

Cybersecurity training focuses on helping employees understand the cybersecurity threats that exist, the risks they pose to your business, how to prevent them, and what to do when they encounter those threats.

Further, it can teach employees how to spot and size up risks–and the consequences of security breaches. It can act both as an educational tool and a preventative measure for those employees who may introduce security breaches–whether unintentionally or intentionally.

Why cybersecurity training is important

Cybersecurity training helps to address human error–one of the most significant security threats to any business. In fact, 95% of cybersecurity issues involve some kind of human element. What’s more, training staff on cybersecurity aims to help reduce a business’ vulnerability to security issues and improve its resilience when confronted with security threats–it places your staff on guard to security issues that threaten your business and teaches them how to spot them.

What does cybersecurity training for employees look like?

How you train your employees and how long it takes is something that can be designed to fit the needs of your business and employees. Training can be done in person or online, individually or in a group, in a day or over several sessions. You can manage the training yourself or outsource it.

Whatever format you choose for your employees, cybersecurity training should lay the foundation about threats that exist and the policies your business has put in place to prevent and address those threats. And, it could be beneficial to conduct ad-hoc training as new threats emerge.

4 key topics in cybersecurity awareness training

To ensure your employees are up-to-speed on your policies and the threats that exist, cybersecurity training could help address these topics.

1. Company data policy

Employees should know what your business policies are about how to handle data–financial data, employee data, and especially customer data (like customers’ stored credit card and personal information). Fraudulent charges and legal fees can be costly, but the bigger risk is losing customer trust.

And Canadians care about this. A recent Interac survey found that 77% of Canadians feel their personal data is more exposed than ever, and 66% believe companies share their information without consent. That means transparency and strong data practices aren’t just good security—they’re good business.

It’s important to cover what should be done when a data breach occurs. That means, employees should know what the plan is and how to follow it if a breach occurs, including:

Making sure employees know who to notify immediately if they suspect a data breach.
Notifying credit card companies involved to protect customer data.
Letting customers know and explaining what you’re doing to protect them.
Investigating the incident to prevent that kind of incident going forward.

2. Passwords

Since most retail businesses use POS systems, time tracking programs, and other business management software that require passwords, it’s important that employees know how to securely set, reset, and store passwords–and how not to store sensitive password information. Even if your employees seem to understand the importance of secure password management, it begs repeating that mishandling passwords can put business systems at risk.

One of the simplest and most effective things to teach employees about passwords is how to set a secure password, paying attention to:

Password length – The longer the password (a minimum of 8 characters), the more difficult it is to crack.
Character sets – The more character sets (think uppercase, lowercase, numerals, or symbols) used in a password can help make it even tougher to figure out.
Complete words – While using a common word might make the password simple to remember, it can make it easy for an attacker to figure out using a “dictionary attack”.
Reused passwords – Reusing passwords across multiple accounts makes it easier for hackers to break into other accounts–even if just one profile is compromised. Changing passwords regularly helps.

3. Hardware and software

A simple way to make sure your system, website, router, and other hardware are fully protected is to stay up–to-date with software updates and security patches as soon as they’re available. They can often address current vulnerabilities.

And, be sure to teach your employees about four of the biggest cybersecurity threats–malware, ransomware, keylogging software, and card testing–and how to avoid becoming a victim to them. That means, not downloading any unauthorized software on company hardware. To help your business stay secure, Clover builds its POS systems with advanced security features — offering multi-layered protection including encryption and tokenization, so every transaction, from swipe, dip, or tap to finish, is better protected.

4. Social and email

Hackers are opportunists, and your social and email accounts are prime targets. One common tactic is spoofing—where attackers create a fake version of your account to impersonate your business and trick customers into sharing personal information.

It’s important to note: spoofing doesn’t mean they’ve hacked your real account. They’re simply pretending to be you. The danger is that customers or employees might trust the fake account and share sensitive data.

On the other hand, account compromise happens when hackers actually gain access to your real account using stolen credentials. Both scenarios can harm your reputation, so monitoring your accounts regularly and training employees to spot suspicious activity is key.

Also be sure to include email best practices in your training. For example, always hover over links to make sure they go where they say they go or scan attachments before opening, checking file extensions for unusual file types.

This starter list of topics can be adjusted to suit the needs of your business. You can also add topics that may be just as relevant to your business, like keeping mobile devices secure, understanding acceptable internet usage at work, or maintaining secure document management.

How can we help?

If you want to learn more about how Clover can help you accept payments, run your business and sell more, please contact your Clover Business Consultant. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

This information is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or tax advice. Readers should contact their attorneys, financial advisors, or tax professionals to obtain advice with respect to any particular matter.