Protecting your organisation from the growing number of scams and cyberattacks requires more than just a strategic investment in cybersecurity tools. While these tools are important, they can't overcome weak cybersecurity hygiene in your business. If an employee falls for a phishing attack or opens a malicious email, your entire business could potentially be at risk.
The cost of these attacks can be enormous, both in terms of immediate financial losses and reputational damage, along with the cost of getting the business back up and running, as well as ongoing remediation costs.
Businesses are already laser focused on survival since the COVID-19 disruption. Dealing with a cyberattack is an unnecessary and expensive distraction that no business wants to invite. To avoid falling victim to a cyberattack, organisations need to improve their cybersecurity culture. While this sounds simple, the reality can be more daunting.
The importance of effective staff training Effective staff training is widely recognised as a key factor in protecting organisations from falling victim to cyberattacks. People can be the weakest link in an organisation when it comes to cybersecurity because it’s so easy to fall for phishing attacks and social engineering. However, when employees are effectively trained to spot phishing attacks, and they understand the importance of their role in protecting the organisation, they can become the company’s strongest cybersecurity asset.
Providing effective, ongoing and compelling training for staff members plays an important role in changing the culture to one where cybersecurity is prioritised. Unfortunately, many organisations miss the mark when it comes to training, despite having the best intentions.
In SecureWare’s experience, companies with the most effective cybersecurity training follow these key principles:
1. Involve senior executives to set the example
When employees are required to follow one set of rules yet observe senior managers failing to follow the same rules, it can breed resentment and create a culture in which no one follows the rules. It’s important to ensure senior executives are setting a strong example to show team members that no one is above the rules.
2. Conduct smaller training modules more often
People struggle to retain large amounts of information when it’s presented in a single block. It’s more effective to break the training down into smaller modules that happen more often. This also reinforces the importance of cybersecurity within the organisation and keeps it top of mind.
3. Focus on one issue per training module
By dedicating each smaller training module to one issue, it’s easier to get the key messages across and cover the issue in more depth. Trying to cover multiple issues in each module can lead to confusion and poor information retention.
4. Reinforce different learning styles
People learn in different ways, with some preferring to hear information, some preferring to see the information, and some needing to do activities to make sure the message sticks. Therefore, it’s important to change up the training with different education methods such as video, written materials and practical examples.
5. Gamify the process
People naturally respond to competitive situations. This has led to the rise of gamification in recent years to drive deeper engagement. This process can be applied to cybersecurity training by conducting mock attacks to see whether team members respond appropriately, then allocating points and potential rewards for those who demonstrate the desired behaviours.
6. Incorporate humour where possible
Entertainment is an important component of learning; the more entertained people are, the more engaged they’ll be with the content. Using humour is a highly effective way to make lessons resonate more strongly. Injecting humour where appropriate makes people enjoy the process and become more willing to participate in lessons, as well as more able to retain information.
Effective training is just one part of the process to create a strong cybersecurity culture. Talk to us today about how we can help strengthen your cybersecurity culture.