Your cybersecurity strategy is only ever as strong as your employees’ respect for it – after all, they’re your first line of defense against a variety of evolving cyber threats.
However, worrying trends are emerging. Research suggests that two-thirds of people feel that everyday tasks are more important than cybersecurity – could it be that companies are failing to train employees adequately? Perhaps it’s due to a lack of cybersecurity culture in specific workplaces.
Regardless, without employees fully invested in cybersecurity measures and protecting your sensitive data, you’re at risk of losing customer confidence, public reputation, and even revenue.
With that in mind, how can you start to engage employees more with the importance of cybersecurity? Let’s explore a few ideas.
Creating a Cybersecurity Culture
Ultimately, your leaders need to practice what they preach. Leadership that extolls the virtues of strong cybersecurity and actively takes steps to ensure they’re careful and measured with sensitive data will inspire others to follow suit.
It’s a key step to instilling basic cybersecurity awareness and principles as part of your working culture. Even simply making staff aware of the different types of employee data and how to manage it is a good next step to take.
Essentially, you need to make cybersecurity a rolling conversation, not a simple mark on your to-do list. Instill different cybersecurity measures and how-tos through regular workshops, interactive sessions, and seminars. Share statistics about the impact of cyber attacks and, without being overbearing, highlight the importance of accountability.
You could even share some of the more intensive statistics regarding cyber attacks – and explore different ways hackers are putting data at risk. For instance, using the results from an internal penetration test, you could show employees where the main risks are, and what they can do to mitigate risks.
Above all, regularly remind your team of the importance of cybersecurity – of course, how you do this depends on your current setup – so, let’s keep digging deeper.
Educating and Training Employees
Cyber attacks aren’t just evolving in terms of sophistication, but also in volume, too. It’s estimated that ransomware incidents surged globally by over 73% between 2022 and 2023, according to the Ransomware Task Force.
Therefore, invest in genuinely engaging, personally tailored training packages to keep employees up to speed on the latest attack vectors and trends. Make cybersecurity training part of personal development plans or timetabled upskilling. Essentially, you should educate and refresh staff on cybersecurity practices regularly, more than once or twice a year!
Doing so can help people keep up to speed on the latest dangers and will help to develop more proactive mindsets. Even better, you could create training packages for specific departments and roles. Keep them interesting and relevant – catch-all training is never easy to recall, or interesting to follow.
Encouraging Open Communication
Believe it or not, many people simply don’t feel safe reporting security flaws at work. Some companies, through no fault of their own, might have developed environments where employees feel pressured to keep their mouths closed on any kind of whistleblowing.
You need to cultivate an open, psychologically healthy workplace where people can report cybersecurity worries without fearing repercussion. For example, you should establish that if people see others in the workplace failing to lock their devices or are even committing fraud outright, they can be reassured with an anonymous reporting system.
However, it’s just as important for people to feel safe to openly raise concerns and to speak to management about security worries. Establish that everyone is equal, that your culture is not one of unfair consequence – and that you will take reports seriously.
Start working on clear and effective communication plans that make sure everyone’s in the loop on company-wide cybersecurity strategies.
Employee Ownership and Accountability
The more engaged an employee is with cybersecurity measures, the more accountable they feel about their own actions. Therefore, you need to establish fun, memorable ways for employees to both understand and respect the cybersecurity measures you expect them to follow.
You could set up regular quizzes, leaderboards, and team exercises to measure cybersecurity knowledge. You could even gamify their education and understanding with a digital rewards or achievements board.
Where possible, you could offer small rewards to people who can regularly demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of cybersecurity measures and risks. You could offer extra time off, priority for overtime, or even money off at the on-site cafeteria.
These are all measures that could entice people from the outset, leading to their building of knowledge and respect for cybersecurity the more they engage.
The vast majority of employees claim gamification makes work more fun – and the same can certainly apply to awareness building and training.
Cybersecurity Drills and Real-World Simulations
One of the best ways to measure employee understanding and to help them engage with training material better is to set up real-world simulations and practice drills.
These simulations place employees deep into the heart of a potential data breach or a situation where they would need to make a confident, measured decision about how to protect sensitive data.
Crucially, it is a much more engaging way to let people explore their skills and to ensure understanding and appreciation sinks in. Many employees simply might not know what a cyber attack looks like – and a safe, simulated “practice” could answer many pressing questions.
Studies show that almost two-thirds of people who have taken rudimentary cybersecurity training fail to recall what they’ve learned in simple testing. The answer is to make training more engaging – and to tailor training to individual needs.
Conclusion
The more engaged employees are about managing cybersecurity risks and recalling their training, the more accountable they will become when it comes to the worst scenarios actually happening.
Engaging your employees can help to reduce potential data leaks and security breaches, and could even encourage more communication when things don’t seem right.
It’s all about finding the best ways to inspire and motivate your team – and with cybersecurity risks always evolving, there’s never been a better time to get started.
Author: Michael A. – Vice President of Managed Compliance Services, VikingCloud
Photo credit: StockCake
