More than 50 employees from Ukrainian credit unions affiliated with the USAID/WOCCU Credit for Agriculture Producers (CAP) Project in January participated in “cyber hygiene” training to increase the overall level of digital security at their respective institutions.

Presented virtually through a total of six webinars, the training aimed to:

• present basic rules of cyber hygiene to credit union employees.
• inform them about the types of possible cyber threats.
• provide recommendations on how to secure digital operations (protection of information, data, protection against malicious interference).
• present basic principles on cyber-incident response.

Many of the threats the employees learned about were related to their own personal data, including passwords, separating personal and corporate mobile devices and protections against malicious software.

Each session included a test to assess each participant’s level of knowledge and readiness.

The CAP Project expects the training to lead to an increased level of safety and security in the daily activities of employees, especially when it comes to their use of devices, software, digital services and more. 

Employees are also expected to better understand the risks associated with the pernicious actions of third parties, such as account hacking, phishing and the distribution of malicious software. They are also expected to be better prepared on how to mitigate those risks.

Understanding that information will help employees improve cyber-incident responses and better protect personal and corporate data in Ukrainian credit unions.