Achieving Success with Security Awareness Training

To really achieve success with your security awareness training program, there are a few things you need to focus on such as:

Security awareness is about people. It needs to be interesting, accessible, relevant, and meaningful; and the program you choose needs to put people first. To achieve these goals, you need to understand what you want to get out of the program. For example, different employees might need to focus on different issues, such as Business Email Compromise. Mapping out your security awareness expectations across your organization is a good place to start, so you can begin to prioritize the types of training your organization requires.
Once you understand the scope of your security awareness program, you should look at how to convey the training. Make sure the program is fun. No one wants to sit through mind-numbing security content. They will simply check out, or worse, refuse to do the training.

Security awareness training is a top-down effort that affects all parts and departments in every organization. You need to “sell it” on the concept of shared responsibility. You’re all in it together, you’re all putting in the same amount of effort, and you’re all benefiting from the results of your mutual work toward this security goal.
Additionally, you need to make sure you get executive buy-in on the need for security awareness training. Presenting the case for funding a security awareness training program is part of making your program of security awareness successful. By running phishing simulations and reporting on the results, you can tell a compelling story to executive stakeholders that will demonstrate the value of a security awareness program, as well as its return on investment (ROI).

You can add weight to your awareness training by including it in your security policy. Prevention of security exposure is not a point solution anymore. Keeping an organization safe is about the entire business, including its people. Make sure that the policy reflects this and includes awareness training as a fundamental part of your security strategy.
As part of this step, you should also align the security awareness program to relevant business/industry issues, such as data security and privacy. Depending on your industry and location, your business may be subject to certain regulations (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.), some of which include security awareness training as a requirement for compliance.

Threats are constantly evolving, which means you’re never really done training. Additionally, as employees change positions or leave the company, training requirements and frequency may change. It’s important that everyone understands training as an ongoing process. Finally, as in all educational pursuits, the key to lasting results is repetition.

If your staff finds particular training efforts useful, that’s important to know. It’s also important to know what they don’t like, so you can find alternatives that can achieve the same result. Institute an open-door policy that allows staff to openly discuss the merits or problems within the training, and make sure they know how and where to report their feedback. Then, use these insights to tailor your programs and make them more effective.