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Cyber security awareness training. It is not a calendar reminder that is likely to excite your employees. But here is a statistic that is likely to make any business owner reflect: over 33% of data breaches were the result of human error.

That means that one in three hacks, malware attacks and breaches could have been prevented if a single human had made a different decision.

The rest of this blog is about:

• The effectiveness of cyber security awareness training,
• The benefits it confers, and,
• How to implement awareness training to make it work for your business

1. What is cyber security awareness training?

Cyber security awareness training is an umbrella term. It refers to any training program, package or module that helps to educate employees of a business about cyber security risks with the aim of preventing data breaches and successful attacks from occurring via prevention. It can also incorporate ‘post event’ response training in the event that a breach does occur.

2. Does cyber security awareness training work? And how effective is it?

In a word, yes. Hackers and scammers figured out a long time ago that it was easier to get past a human than to bypass sophisticated cyber security algorithms. Put in a blunt way, our people are the weak link in cyber security because they can be tricked, confused, blackmailed or bullied. And all of those negative tactics rely on one thing: a lack of knowledge on the part of the person subject to those efforts.

In that way, security training awareness is a little like the red and yellow flags used at beaches. For those who grew up in Australia, red and yellow flags mean ‘safe to swim’ and lifeguards. But for those from overseas, they may not have any meaning at all. That’s why tourist information stresses the importance of swimming between the flags, and the dangers of not doing so.

Cyber security awareness training turns employees from the ‘unaware tourists’ in the example into informed decision makers. With the new information they learn, they are in a much stronger position to assess potential threats and make better decisions.

3. What should cyber security awareness training include?

At a minimum, cyber security awareness training needs to get employees comfortable with the language of cyber threats. Phishing, malware, trojans and worms are all likely to be unfamiliar terms, but if an employee can understand what a threat is, they are more likely to be able to spot it and respond appropriately before it does any damage.

Case studies that walk people through what is a plausible real-world scenario can also help employees both understand and recall those threat patterns.

A strong cyber security awareness program offered by an industry expert is also worth considering to make sure that the safety message is appropriately designed and communicated.

4. How often should cyber security awareness training be conducted?

In the past, the default option was to have a once a year training package that covered a long list of threats, processes and procedures.

However, a more effective strategy to make cyber security part of the business as usual thinking of employees not a ‘one off’ or ‘tick and flick’ mandatory training package might be to implement shorter duration, higher frequency modules.

These could take as little as 15 – 30 minutes to complete. Scheduling dedicated time in calendars specifically for the purpose of completing the training is a specific, practical way to encourage compliance.

Supplementing these self-paced individual sessions with interactive quizzes or short occasional seminars about the latest threats or scams circulating could also be an option to consider.

And key to all of the above approaches is continual monitoring and measurement of compliance. Given its immense importance, many large organisations simply make cyber security training mandatory for all employees and set deadlines for completion of regular modules. That approach is something that your business could also consider.

5. Implementing a cyber security awareness program

Cyber security awareness programs are a sensible investment that any business can make to strengthen what has been identified in the data as a clear weakness in business security.

CyberUnlocked is experienced in the design and implementation of these programs and can help your company put in place a tailored training program that works for your business and specific needs, and those of your employees.