Security awareness training is the easiest way and the first step you can take to protect your business from attacks like data breaches, ransomware, or other cyberattacks. As you already may know, most of the time, these attacks occur because of your employees. Therefore, you should clearly consider cybersecurity training for your staff, as it is the key for your business to stay safe in the digital world!
Today’s cybercriminals are very sophisticated, resourceful, and good at planning and executing targeted attacks. Driven by huge profits, cybercriminals spare no effort to pursue high-value targets, across all sectors, industries, and types of organizations. Unfortunately, relying solely on security products is no longer a viable strategy to protect an organization’s systems and data from potential attacks.
Phishing, hacking, and other scams are a few examples of cyber threats that target mostly your employees and the personal and sensitive information that they hold. Unfortunately, the worrying truth is that these attacks happen daily, resulting from considerable financial loss to massive data breaches.
The good news is that companies can take action to reduce their risk exposure by training their employees to identify, report, and take action on possible attacks. With the help of security awareness training, you can build a strong first-line defense by training your staff at all levels. The question now is: “How do you know what security awareness program is right for your business?”. As a business owner seeking to add this critical layer of security, you’d like to be peaceful knowing that the program is adequate for your team. In the following, we will show you some essential steps that will help you decide what is best for you and your business!
1. Evaluate your business’s security awareness needs
In this first step, you should evaluate the size of your company, the industry sector, and some current cyber-security practices. For example, if you own a small company, you are more likely to be the target of cyberattacks; therefore, you should consider implementing a high-quality program.
Making sure that everyone in your company is trained to at least a basic level is essential. There are many potential cyberattacks; that is why it’s important to focus on getting only the relevant information. It’s just like starting to “over-train” when in reality, you have under-trained employees.
2. Choose content that is easy to understand
When looking to find the best security awareness program, try to look out for fresh and engaging content to make the training more effective. As an example, your younger employees tend to engage more with short videos, puzzles, different games, etc.
In addition, some of them might say they’re more engaged through visual lessons in a group of people. Others might enjoy listening to audio guides, or could prefer a more hands-on approach.
Bottom line, everyone’s different and the security awareness training module should take this into account.
3. Essentials features that your security awareness training should include
Another important step when choosing a training program is to consider you should take when selecting a training program is to consider what’s included and how much each feature is worth to you. The fastest way to get everyone up to speed with online threats is to expose them to cyberattacks. Phishing simulations are a great way of raising awareness and helping users understand the cost of their own actions. When coupled with cybersecurity courses, they form a robust and effective training program. Courses should be short and should focus on the key areas, and avoid technical jargon.
However, besides the educational essentials, you should look at usability and enjoyability for the user. That way, you can make sure your employees maintain a consistent focus on their training and make this a memorable experience, which will positively benefit the learning results.
Some essential features include:
- short modules
- engaging content (infographics, videos, etc)
- measurable results (quizzes, reports)
- phishing simulations capabilities
In addition, studies have shown that the most effective way to educate is through short and frequent training exercises!
4. Humor
The majority of people don’t absorb information when it’s delivered in a boring format. On the other hand, humor captures people’s attention and is the best way to keep your employees engaged in the training. Keep this in mind when deciding and looking for training that includes humor to communicate important information in a highly relatable way.
5. Don’t forget about the language aspect
If you own an international organization, you must make sure that the training is available for all your employees. For example, if there are people in your team that speak different languages, you want to make sure that you choose a security awareness program that is available in various languages, so all your employees can benefit from it.
6. Costs
How much you’re willing to spend on educating your employees about security awareness training is, in the end, up to you. However, some of the costs may include:
- employee planning
- implementation time
- software fees
- in-house or vendor administration
- communications
Still, no matter how much money you invest in training, it will always be more effective and cost-efficient than dealing with bigger incidents like data breaches or ransomware attacks.
Why consider Attack Simulator?
Our company offers affordable and customizable training in security awareness for all businesses, no matter the size.
We want to make your employees recognize security threats easily through interactive games, phishing simulations, and many others methods.
You can also request a demo and explore what we have to offer! You won’t regret choosing the Attack Simulator’s team, therefore don’t waste another minute and start your free trial today!
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