How To Make Your Employees Care About Cybersecurity Training
Regardless of whether they care about or understand cybersecurity, employees remain an organization’s first line of defense in combatting cyberattacks. Over ninety percent of breaches originate through employee error and thus their understanding of cyber risks is essential to an organization’s security. However, it might be difficult to interest your employees who do not appreciate the necessity and usefulness of this training or who view it as simply one more task distracting them from their work. Due to the potential dire consequences associated with an employee base uneducated on cyber topics, employers must find a way to counteract these attitudes and engage all members of an organization in cybersecurity training. Here are some tips to turn your least interested employees into your strongest cybersecurity advocates:
- Emphasize the Importance of Understanding Risks. Detail the consequences and losses the organization will face if a cyber incident occurs and share that information with employees. Knowing the potential losses will encourage employees to take a stronger interest in their own role in your organization’s cybersecurity.
- Share News of Breaches in your Industry. When another institution in your industry or a similar industry experiences a breach, make sure your employees know about the breach and its results. Doing so will keep cyber threats top of mind and remind your employees that their organization is a target.
- Enact Information Security Policies. Creating IT and security policies that employees must sign will emphasize personal responsibility and motivate employees to understand cyber risks.
- Use Engaging Training Material. Often employees complain about new training because it is dull, overly technical, or exceptionally long. They do not want to take the time out of their day to undergo training that cannot hold their attention or that they do not understand. Instead, look for non-technical education of a reasonable length that both teaches your employees and holds their attention.
- Incentivize Cybersecurity Education. Encourage employees to complete their training by providing rewards such as gift cards or a paid day off. Recognize employees who exceed expectations in meetings.
- Make it Fun! Incorporate incentives into competitions or enact some other type of gamification to keep employees interested and continuously reviewing their education.
Cybersecurity education transforms your employees from the most vulnerable aspect of your network into your strongest line of defense. Employee cyber education is crucial to information security, so ensuring employee engagement with security training should be a top priority. If you cannot convince your employees to care about their cyber training try some of these tips, and if you are still searching for fun and engaging solutions check out our ThreatAdvice micro, animated videos and gamified platform!