How Ineffective Security Training Impacts The Entire Company

By Vinicius Perallis, CEO – Hacker Rangers

The stakes are incredibly high when it comes to cybersecurity training. The average financial impact of a single security breach is $4.88 million, and today’s cyber attackers often circumvent the most advanced controls by leveraging social engineering attacks aimed at employees. If training doesn’t effectively equip those employees to identify and repel attacks, they could unwittingly facilitate a costly security failure.

As companies seek to provide effective training, they must be careful to choose programs that balance the many and varied needs of all stakeholders.  It’s not uncommon for organizations to overload programs with technical jargon and complex concepts, making them hard for all employees to relate to.

The average employee needs regular training that is engaging, understandable, and relevant to their duties. If the training a company provides doesn’t consider the needs of sales reps, administrative assistants, general managers, and CEOs, it won’t address today’s cyberattackers’ primary targets. Everyone, from the C-suite executive to the intern, requires proper and comprehensive cybersecurity training to better protect the organization as a whole.

The dangers of ineffective training

An effective training program activates the cybersecurity program, which should then prevent cyberattackers from gaining unauthorized access to a company’s network. Without an effective training program, employees will be left in the dark about what is expected of them and the most impactful way to carry out their duties.

A security failure is the most obvious outcome of ineffective training, but it is not the only threat to companies. When training fails to deliver relevant content in engaging ways, it creates a culture that views training as unimportant and a waste of time. If the company does not invest in high-quality training developed with the end user in mind, employees will quickly become disinterested, engagement will plummet, and cyberattackers will be offered an easier target.

The components of effective security training

The first step toward ensuring a company has training that serves all of its employees is utilizing a program with well-constructed language. Technical language is appropriate for CISOs, as they are typically familiar with terms such as “intrusion detection system,” “distributed denial of service,” and “endpoint detection and response,” meaning they wouldn’t be confused by training that addressed those topics.

However, for the average employee, the content must be far less technical to be effective. They need to understand the security components that will affect them. Presenting those components in easily accessible and digestible language with relevant examples is critical if the training is to be successful.

Training that is effective for the entire company will also be visually engaging, as text-heavy training often fails to connect with the average employee. Adding visuals drives higher engagement, with some studies showing that using visuals improves learning by up to 400 percent.

Visuals elicit a deeper understanding of the material by tapping into the power of mental imagery, helping employees retain important information by giving them visual cues to create and trigger memories. A wall of text, on the other hand, can lead to employees feeling overwhelmed and disengaging.

Integrating training into employees’ regular routines is another part of developing and deploying an effective program. If accessibility proves challenging, employees will be less motivated to engage with the training. The training should be easily accessible and quick to complete with straight-to-the-point content. That way, employees can conduct it during lunch breaks through a mobile device, for example, making it convenient and flexible with their schedules. The most effective programs will facilitate continuous learning, ensuring that employees always have the knowledge they need to carry out their role in the overall cybersecurity strategy.

Building a cybersecurity culture

Staying safe in today’s threat environment requires more than simply deploying cybersecurity training. Companies must seek to build a cybersecurity culture. If training is not developed with the end user in mind, that goal will not be achieved.

To build a cybersecurity culture, those responsible for training must start by developing a thorough understanding of end users, including an appreciation for how they learn and a willingness to meet their needs. They also must address how cybersecurity plays out in their unique position rather than presenting a generalized approach that is disconnected and irrelevant.

As a cybersecurity culture starts to form, employees will become more comfortable with and confident in their cybersecurity duties. This leads to valuable information sharing and collaboration in carrying out those duties. In the end, the entire company embraces cybersecurity as a key responsibility rather than the burden falling only on the CISO.

Cybersecurity training is a never-ending endeavor that requires continuous reinforcement. Investing in a cybersecurity culture ensures that employees will always be eager to play their role. 

If employees become complacent about cybersecurity training or lose focus, it will ultimately become ineffective. Ineffective cybersecurity training is equivalent to no training at all, and no training at all is equivalent to a higher vulnerability regarding cybercrime.

Vinicius Perallis is an expert in cybersecurity and CEO of Hacker Rangers, a company focused on fostering cybersecurity practices within businesses using gaming techniques. As the visionary behind Hacker Rangers and a passionate enthusiast of gamification, Vinicius has effectively introduced training programs to over 500 companies in Brazil and worldwide. His background at IBM and other leading technology firms has shaped his knowledge and guidance in the industry.