Online cybersecurity training program for Canadian small and medium-sized businesses debuts today, months following launch
The Cybersecurity Academya gamification platform open to the 95,000 members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), was first announced in March and promised to go live in the spring or summer.
“We spent a lot of time discerning the content and making sure it was the right tone and the content was digestible for business owners,” said Mandy D’Autremont, VP of Partnerships. marketing of the federation, in an interview. “We wanted to do it right. »
“We didn’t want to post something rushed. »
Like many gamification platforms, participants can earn badges for successfully completing training sessions. Companies can then decide how to reward the best.
As an added incentive to play, the federation offers a cash bonus: each person who completes a course is entered into a draw for a $10,000 prize. One person in each province and territory is eligible for a $500 prize.
For a limited time, CFIB is also opening access to non-members, with free temporary membership to allow them to take Cybersecurity Academy courses.
Designed with help from Mastercard and built on a learning platform hosted by Toronto’s Horizn, CFIB’s Cybersecurity Academy kicks off with four courses, Cybersecurity Basics, Detecting Social Engineering, Protecting Your Business Against cybercrime and What to do when you are hacked.
Early next year, courses on recognizing fraud and dealing with problems with credit cards will be added.
Each class has five lessons, which last between five and 10 minutes.
Announcing the program, CFIB said a member survey showed that only 11% of respondents said their companies had provided mandatory cybersecurity training to their employees in the past year. Eight percent offered optional training.
The academy also offers templates to help companies set up a cybersecurity framework. Templates include how to create an emergency contact list and incident response plan, how to inventory hardware and software, and how to create a policy on the appropriate use of social media.
Ideally, said Ms. D’Autremont, 20% of member companies of the federation will enroll in the academy.
French adaptation and translation by Renaud Larue-Langlois.
