Your workforce plays a vital role in the overall security of your business – whether they know it or not. Security Awareness Training (SAT) provides every employee – regardless of department or seniority – the current knowledge they need to defend themselves and the company.
By harnessing the power of your employees, you’re making end users a part of the solution. However, SAT goes beyond protecting employees and the business – it also protects your customers. Implementing this training shows a high level of commitment to safety and security by protecting everyone involved. Your security needs to go beyond technical controls and seep into the culture.
So, what should be incorporated in this vital aspect of security, and who should be included?
What Should Be Covered in SAT?
One of the most important things to remember when conducting SAT is to keep employees engaged and the material relevant – including tailoring it to employee roles. Individuals and specific functions within an organization are frequently targeted by cybercriminals. Because their fraud tactics are more customized and sophisticated, fraudsters achieve higher degrees of success.
That being said, one of the fundamentals of SAT is educating employees about the different types of cyber threats they could be exposed to. This includes spam, malware, phishing, whaling, and fraud. It’s also important to teach threat recognition and response – things such as what to look out for, how to notice a possible threat, and what to do about it. This training can be done in a classroom setting, either in-person or virtually, and through modules or online exercises.
Recurring testing should be implemented as it is, arguably, the most important aspect of SAT. This is where we are results-focused. To determine if your employees are still vigilant and up to date in spotting bogus accounts and requests, send them frequent emails with clickable links that mimic phishers. Employees will become defense assets if you schedule simulated attacks on a regular basis. Throughout the training, you will be able to see what employees have learned, retained, and are putting into practice – and you can also see those employees who may need a tad more training. This approach is far more effective than one off or annual phishing tests.
SAT is a process, and it will evolve with the cyber threats in today’s world – as well as your business. The stronger SAT program you have, the safer the company is.
Who Should Participate in SAT?
ALL human touch points across an organization should have SAT – employees, suppliers, contractors, and yes, even executives. Cybercriminals are after everyone in today’s world, especially executives. Setting a good example of a security-first mindset and culture will trickle down to every employee if it starts at the top. It’s important that everyone make time for this training and education to be prepared for potential attacks against themselves, and the business.
When Should You Facilitate SAT?
This training is not meant to be a one-and-done exercise. SAT should happen on a recurring basis, whether that be through classroom training, workshops, or simulation tests. Cyberthreats are never going to stop evolving, so it’s crucial employees don’t become complacent. Often, simulated phishing tests are sent on a monthly basis, and depending on the industry, even more frequently than that. If employees are ever to become a part of the solution, continual education on the trends and latest threats is a necessity.
Here are some basic guidelines you should follow:
- Yearly Training: Gather your team for an hour-long training session that covers the types of threats that exist, how they appear, how to prevent them, and what to do if an attack is successful.
- Monthly Tips: Send out one or two useful recommendations each month to ensure you stay on top of the newest trends and to keep security knowledge top-of-mind for your employees.
- Intermittent Simulations: Use Mirazon’s SAT tools to simulate phishing attacks and phony scams to your team, see how they respond, and enroll them in extra training activities if they fall for it to. This helps to reinforce information and track how well the training is working.
Mirazon’s Security Awareness Training can do all this hard work for you – providing you and your team with invaluable data about real-time vulnerabilities, areas that need improving/training, instructing said training, and how your security as a whole has improved overtime.
The one thing organizations can NEVER predict is human error – so get ahead of this threat by educating your employees on the cyber threats they could be exposed to, and how to prevent a breach. People are the foundation of any business, and we want to be a part of your organization’s journey of investing in its people – while dramatically increasing security at the same time.
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us and call 502-240-0404 or send us an email at info@mirazon.com.