All employees of a company – from corporate management, customer support, IT support to staff running the reception – can and must do their part to ensure safety. But various groups within a company have a different level of knowledge of IT security issues, but also have a different view on importance and impact. As always, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link.
A workforce that is unaware of all the types of dangers lurking online are a serious security risk to any organization’s network and mission. In short, today’s workforce cannot be untrained in Cyber Security awareness.
Cybercriminals will aim their attacks on your employees because they consider them vulnerable and high-value targets that can be easily manipulated into clicking on links in a phishing email; unknowingly initiating an online drive-by download; or unwittingly granting a threat actor access to an office or facility.
One successful attack – maybe just the result of a single wrong click on hyperlink – can lead to millions of dollars for criminals and your organization becoming a repeat target of more attacks. The price paid by an organization – even one with cyber insurance – could be millions of dollars in compliance fines and in the loss of brand confidence, revenue, shareholder value, and more.
For a security awareness and training program to be effective, it should promote and nurture a culture of security within the organization. Merely treating it as a compliance checklist item will not cultivate awareness or adapt to the constantly evolving threat environment. Hence, it is crucial to integrate Cyber Security awareness into the organization’s work culture continuously. Awareness should begin at the individual level, and every employee should take responsibility for safeguarding the organization’s information and assets.
We can help you with all relevant steps:
Assessing and Understanding your Baseline
You should start by establishing a baseline of current security risks. This helps in developing a plan and evaluating the effectiveness of a training program in improving security habits over time. A Cyber Security framework comprising a set of standards, guidelines, and best practices used to manage digital risks can provide valuable assistance in this initial stage. The framework typically aligns security objectives with policies and procedures that define an organization’s best practices for managing its Cyber Security risk. There are several frameworks available, and we can help you to select the one that’s right for your organization when developing a security framework tailored to your specific needs.
Also, before designing a training plan and enrolling employees in training sessions, we recommend testing their security habits. This helps to establish a baseline, identify problem areas, and focus training and reinforcement efforts. Several techniques and tools can be deployed to understand the security habits of employees like:
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- Phishing Simulations
- Social Engineering Simulations
- Monitoring Tailgating
- Performing Spot Checks
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Designing and Developing your Training Plan
We will work with you to clearly define your goals and develop a training and awareness plan. In this context, several questions need to be answered:
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- Training Cadence
- Rollout Strategy
- Target Audience
- Communication Plan
- Success Criteria
- Remediation
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We recommend investigating professional employee security awareness solutions as it’s close to impossible for any organization to create such a program on their own within a reasonable amount of time and at acceptable costs.
There are several solutions on the market that can help you to establish and roll out your program and we can help you to select, customize and implement the solution that is right for your organization. This includes defining and prioritizing your areas of concern like:
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- Phishing Attacks
- Snowshoeing
- Ransomware
- Social Engineering
- Social Media Guidelines
- Internet an Email Use
- Mobile Device Security
- Removable Media and Devices
- Passwords and Authentication
- Physical Security
- Work from Home
- Public Wi-Fi
- Cloud Security
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Rolling Out your Security Awareness Program
Once all questions have been answered and a suitable professional solution has been selected and customized, it’s time to roll out and communicate the security awareness program to employees. We can help you with developing a roll out strategy that includes:
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- Informing employees ahead of time about the upcoming security awareness training
- Defining deadlines and reminding employees to complete the training on time
- Communicating the importance of training, the training plan, and the training schedule to the entire organization
- Ensuring that everyone understands the importance of security awareness training and encourage them to participate
- Using various communication channels to reach employees
- Encouraging feedback from employees about the training program
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Monitoring and Managing the Impact of your Program
To ensure the success of your security and awareness program, it is important to track employee progress and behavior. Some of the following actions should be supported by the training solution that has been selected for your organization. Therefore, it is important to include this when evaluating various products. We are looking for:
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- Keeping track of who has taken the training and who hasn’t, along with reasons for non-participation
- Identifying areas where people are performing poorly and looking for trends to increase adoption
- Establishing a cycle of initial baseline testing, training, retesting, and remediation training for noncompliant employees
- Evaluating if, and how, employee security behaviors improve over time
- Escalating gaps to management and acting on stragglers if necessary
- Increasing or decreasing the frequency of training module distribution as needed
- Making modifications to the training campaign to meet the success criteria
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