Security icons. Security awareness is one of the most important forms of user training, as end users are the leading cause of corporate security breaches.

How To Incorporate Security Awareness In Your User Training – Tech Tip for April 21, 2020

In-line with our theme this month, we are continuing to emphasize the importance of employee education and development. And this week, we want to talk about one of the most important forms of user training you can introduce into your organization: security awareness.

When evaluating the biggest security threats in organizations today, it may come as a surprise to learn that end users are the leading cause of security breaches. While the occasional malicious insider may deliberately cause a security breach from inside your organization, more often than not, employees who lack awareness are the ones who are more likely to open the virtual doors to attackers.

To protect your company, especially as employees work from home on a variety of devices, it’s wise to start thinking about how your organization can standardize best practices around security. But what does a security awareness program look like?

What to include in your security awareness program:

  • Ensure your security training makes the most impact by providing informative content that aligns to different types of employee roles. This helps your leadership team prove to auditors or regulators that you are taking the right steps to mitigate security risks throughout your organization.  
  • Continuously present security information throughout the year as opposed to a once-a-year ‘check the box’ training.
  • Put employees through phishing simulations to give them a feel for what could happen and establish good reporting habits.
  • Learn to create metrics and reports so that you can see what types of training works well and what does not.
  • Send out surveys or assessments to see how well your security program is resonating with employees and whether any changes need to be made based on their feedback.