Until recently, most organizations would impart security awareness training as lectures using a slide deck. They typically conducted these training sessions once a year or once during induction. However, these sessions proved ineffective because of their uninteresting nature and lack of follow-up sessions.
If you intend to develop a security-focused culture, implementing robust security awareness training is crucial. Here are a few tips that can help you effectively implement security training:
- Make the training sessions interactive – Your employees will show more interest if you deliver training in high-quality video format since it grabs more attention. Add text content only as a complementary piece to the video. Ensure that the presentation is appealing so that they do not miss out on important details. Also, make sure your everyone can clear their doubts through face-to-face discussions or virtual conversations with subject matter experts.
- Break the training into smaller modules – Since the attention span of your staff will almost certainly vary from one to another, breaking training sessions into smaller modules will help them retain information faster as a whole. You can regularly send training modules to everyone to ensure they are up to speed on the latest security topics. Smaller units have a better chance of retention than lengthy pieces of content.
- Facilitate self-paced learning – Give your staff the freedom to learn at their convenience. This, of course, does not mean deadlines should not be set either. Make sure you give them sufficient time to complete each training module based on its complexity.
- Training must include relevant material – The training material must not contain any outdated information. Given how quickly the cyberthreat landscape is changing, the training must be updated regularly and must cover new cyberthreats so hackers don’t end up tricking your employees. Please remember that the content should not be overly technical. The training material must be imparted in an easy-to-understand manner, so people have no trouble applying it in daily work scenarios.
- Conduct reviews with quizzes and mock drills – To assess your employees’ preparedness, you must conduct regular tests, including mock drills, that assess alertness based on their response to simulated scams.
Transform Your Weakest Link Into Your Prime Defense
Regular security awareness training can help develop a transformative security culture within your organization, thus enabling your staff to detect even sophisticated cyberthreats and undertake adequate action.
We understand that implementing robust security awareness training can be a bit challenging. However, you have nothing to worry about. We can help you seamlessly integrate security awareness training into your operations to make your staff the first line of defense against existing or imminent cyber threats. Contact us for a free cybersecurity audit to learn how your school stacks up.