Employee Cybersecurity Awareness and Training
Under the looming threat of cyber-attacks in today’s environment, the importance of Cybersecurity Awareness and Training for your of employees cannot be overstated. It equips your staff to recognise and counter potential threats, thus serving as the first line of defence. However, for your training and awareness program to be effective, avoid common mistakes that could undermine your efforts.
By tackling these challenges head-on, you can optimise the impact of your employee cybersecurity training.
Below, we explore these pitfalls and explore strategies to avoid them.
6 Common Mistakes to Avoid for Cybersecurity Awareness Training
1. Viewing cybersecurity training as a singular event
Avoid the mistake of treating cybersecurity training as a one-time exercise. Rather, cultivate a culture of continuous learning among your employees. Offer regular opportunities for your employees to stay updated on the latest threats and best security practices. That way, security awareness moves from a one-off occurrence to a regular exercise.
2. Using outdated and unrelatable content
Engagement is important for any effective training process. So, avoid delivering dry, dated content that can’t capture your employees’ interest. Instead, provide current, engaging, and relevant content, utilising interactive platforms and user-friendly tools to create an immersive learning experience.
Furthermore, the training should involve active learning where employees can practice what they have learnt. It also helps for them to find “teachable moments” where they are fully engaged and ready to change behaviour because of the training.
3. Measuring activity over behavioural results
Whilst focusing on activity, such as the quantity of training delivered, may provide some useful statistics, it does not paint the whole picture. Shifting focus to the actual outcomes will highlight employee engagement and their understanding of security principles, driving tangible results through your organisation.
4. Cultivating blame and mistrust
Cybersecurity awareness and training should be an avenue for growth and enhancement rather than a finger-pointing exercise. So, create a supportive atmosphere where employees can easily report security concerns and ask questions. Also, emphasise that cybersecurity is a collective responsibility which plays a significant part against cyber threats.
5. Limited support and involvement from top management
The leadership team plays a key role in the success of your cybersecurity awareness program. They set the tone for the program, so without their visible support, the employees may mistakengly view cybersecurity as a low-priority issue. Encourage leadership to actively participate, to encourage others and show commitment to cyber security initiatives.
6. Not getting help when necessary
It’s no secret that creating and managing a comprehensive awareness training program in cybersecurity can be challenging. So, your teams need to be able to get the required support from internal and external experts.
They can offer the necessary knowledge and guidance to implement an efficient program.
If you can overcome these, you can establish a strong security culture within your organisation.
We have also compiled a downloadable checklist, “How Strong is Your Cybersecurity Culture?” to help you assess whether you are on the right track.
However, not every business has the capacity to develop an effective security training program. The good news is IT service providers like Kalara can take this off your hands.
Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation. We will discuss how to equip your workforce with the necessary skills to safeguard your organisation.
