As important as it is to implement a cyber awareness program, it is just as important that it be effective. So, to ensure your staff and your business get the most out of it, here are the top mistakes when implementing a cyber awareness program you need to avoid.
- Not keeping current
Many businesses decide to run an annual program, recycling the same material and quizzes year after year. This is bad for so many reasons; staff will not take it seriously, or worse, just start to memorize the program rather than learn it, plus your organization could miss out on learning about new trends in social engineering and phishing scams. When planning training, make sure to keep the content fresh and current.
- Making the training too long
It’s in nobody’s best interest for the training program to be too long. Employees will get bored/check out if it is too long and boring. Instead, respect their time and ensure that it is compelling. If employees aren’t engaged in the training, then it won’t be effective, which is a waste of your time.
- Not tailoring the training to employee roles/capabilities
While it can be time consuming, you will get more bang for your cyber awareness buck if training is tailored to employees roles and responsibilities. Employees perform different tasks and face different threats, so you need to make sure that their training focuses on the types of risks they are likely to face. In all cases, ensure that employees know how to spot suspicious situations and how to report them.
- Not asking for feedback
If you don’t ask for feedback, then how will you know if the training has been successful? It’s also a good way to gauge what they have learned, and what other issues may need to be addressed further.
- Only training once per year
If you are only providing cyber awareness training once a year, you are not getting good value for your money. Staff will tend to forget what they learned after a while once the next big project comes up. Also, if you train more often, it makes it easier to stay on top of trends (like phoney COVID-19 websites).
- Shaming users who get a poor score or who cause a breach
The whole goal of cyber awareness training is to alert employees to the threats that are out there to help them to make good choices when faced with ambiguity online. Making fun of an employee who may learn a little slower, or who makes mistakes doesn’t help them learn any better. It becomes a hindrance to the training objectives. Any mistakes made during the training can be used as a learning opportunity to help workers understand. The more your training is focused on shaming victims, the more likely employees will hide any “problems” they run into, causing much worse problems down the road.
- Not taking employee engagement seriously enough
Employees want to feel like their contributions to the organization matter and are recognized. If your cyber awareness training treats staff like they are the biggest cyber security problem, then they won’t want to bother putting in the effort. Instead, focus on how employees can be the best defence against cyber threats. Creating a culture where their efforts are recognized can go a long way in helping to create a more cyber aware culture.
Cyber awareness training is a necessity in today’s work environment. Getting the right training, at the right time is key! If you need help with setting up your own cyber awareness program, contact Uzado today.