How do you customize security awareness training for your team?

Tailor, Engage, Assess! ???? I'd customize security awareness training by identifying specific goals based on our risk profile and compliance requirements. Understanding the audience's knowledge level and role in the organization helps tailor the content effectively. Choose engaging and relevant content that addresses specific threats and best practices. Deliver the training using interactive and accessible formats. Finally, evaluate the training's impact through feedback and assessments to improve the program continuously.

We hold an annual human risk assessment where we review our training topics for what we should highlight and to help pinpoint any gaps. By working with our cybersecurity operations center and incident response teams, our training and awareness materials are always relevant to the threats we see in our organization.

I beleive in multi security awareness and training program, this may be combined from several elements inclufing gamification. Certain groups or employees will be needed to go throgh additonal training per their role or sensitivity or risk.

In my experience as a security manager at all levels, getting buy in and engagement with team members is key. Who and what are they securing? Why are they doing it? In simple terms, what happens if they don’t? Getting them to understand these values and the consequences of non compliance is key, not against them but to their objective. Incentivise and reward vigilance no matter how trivial. These objectives can form part of an SOP that can be retrained as often as you deem fit or if any changes are forthcoming. Constant adaptation.

A risk assessment should be conducted with a focus on areas where the human interaction could increase risk. The current threat landscape will also be considered. Goals should be centered around cultivating a proactive and security-conscious culture. The first objective is to enhance the team's understanding of cybersecurity risks, ensuring that everyone comprehends the potential consequences of security breaches. This knowledge will empower them to make informed decisions that prioritize data protection and threat prevention.

Role based or role specific security awareness programs will be of great value to target audiences instead of an ‘one size fits all’ approach. Plus promoting awareness in native tongue especially in manufacturing sector where the workforce on the shop floor may not be conversant in English will help in better reach. Gamified learning with rewards and recognition for best security behaviour and action is critical to positively engage the Gen Z demographics.

For those in specialised roles, such as finance, IT, HR. This training has to be niche. Buy in is key here and spending the time to speak with leaders from the teams to understand what time the team have availably for training, what will get the teams attention and importantly, what has been succesfull previously, will ensure that you get the right content as well as having strong voices supporting the content.

I conduct a comprehensive assessment of the team's roles, responsibilities, and existing knowledge levels. It's important to collaborate with stakeholders, to gain insights into the diversity of roles within the team, such as technical staff, non-technical staff, managers, and executives. Analyze the team's familiarity with security concepts and potential knowledge gaps. Consider a survey to gauge their understanding of key security practices, their experiences with security incidents, and their confidence in handling security-related situations. This assessment will enable the trainer to adapt the training material to the varying levels of expertise and ensure that the content is neither too basic nor overly technical.

Create Personas: Develop personas or user profiles that represent different roles within your organization. These personas should reflect the specific responsibilities and potential vulnerabilities associated with each role. Tailor Content: Based on the personas and identified risks, customize the training content to make it relevant to each group. For example, finance and HR teams may have different training needs. Use real-world examples and case studies that relate to your industry or organization to make the training more engaging and relatable.

Custom tailor the training materials and sessions to specific job functions; one size for all may not work well. People in finance may need everything translated into cost. Give things in figures, how much an incident would cost. (This is a great strategy to the Management too, to get your necessary funds!) Design/Development may easily understand the importance of Intellectual Properties they create and how secure it shall be. HR would easily understand the need of role-based access permissions to keep employee data safe. Facilities staff would know the importance of printed record keeping. Create a pride among the stakeholders to upkeep security norms.

Tailor Content: Based on the personas and identified risks, customize the training content to make it relevant to each group. For example, finance and HR teams may have different training needs. Use real-world examples and case studies that relate to your industry or organization to make the training more engaging and relatable. Develop Engaging Materials: Create engaging training materials that are visually appealing and easy to understand. Use multimedia elements like videos, infographics, and interactive modules to keep participants engaged.

Knowing and understaning your audience is an important part in selecting the training material. When previosuly implementing a security awareness programme to an organisation of thousands of people, I used training that I felt would engage the majority of people. I looked at the area that I knew they all had in common, they all worked in the same industry. This is a great starting point. Most importantly, is the feedback you get by way of completion rates. If this is low, you need to understand why before you change course. Do people have the time to take part, are people aware of the training, is there a deadline for completion or can this be continuously pushed down the to do list? Tweaking these factors may allow more people to engage

The key of choosing the right content is to look at its effectiveness. Make the content as engaging and interactive as possible. Use Social Media to reach to them easily. Also encourage the stakeholders to come up with content ideas from their own insights. Videos are the most effective format and try to include them wherever it is possible.

Is your training phishy? Learners may be confused or even report it as suspicious when training uses email addresses and websites with a third-party domain. Keep websites on the company domain and messages using company style and language.

Communicating the training before during and after is a crucial step in driving engagement. This allows people to be prepared for it, they know they will have to commit time to it. A communication during the training reminds people they must do it and promotes conversation about the training. A communication after the training completion deadline, confiriming the success of the training such as completion rates, will push those that have yet to partake.

In cybersecurity training, choose methods that suit your team's preferences—such as in-person sessions, online courses, webinars, or simulations. Incorporate interactive elements like quizzes for engagement. Highlight your organization's policies and their relevance to daily tasks. Provide practical tips on strong passwords, secure communication, and data protection. Regularly update content to address evolving threats. This ensures a dynamic and effective training program.

Trainings can be effective when dedicated sessions are launched. Follow-ups and refresher ideas can be delivered on logon screens and tips of the day. Wherever dedicated sessions are not easy, deliver self-paced online trainings.

Assessment and Reporting: Our training programs include assessments and reporting mechanisms to measure their effectiveness. This enables our clients to identify areas that may require additional attention or reinforcement. Cultivating a Security Culture: We emphasize the importance of fostering a culture of security within our clients' organizations. Security is a shared responsibility, and we encourage all employees to play their part. Ongoing Support: We provide ongoing support, including resources and a dedicated helpdesk, to address any questions or concerns that may arise after training completion.

When building a work plan for employee awareness training, the content must be adapted to the target audience. Phishing exercises will be cross-company and the target is all employees at all levels While developers will have different awareness training from HR. Also a social engineering exercise that can be aimed at a specific target audience While studying awareness training will be available to the whole company It is important that any awareness activity has clear results of success versus failure.

When self-paced trainings are deployed, it is crucial to assess the effectiveness with periodical test sessions. Help them to identify Security Incidents. Make mock situations to evaluate the efficacy of the training programmes. Metrics and Evaluation: The number of security incidents, phishing susceptibility rates, and employee feedback are good points to be recorded to know the success.

Behavioural analysis and pcsychological assessments are another interesting aspects to look into...to ensure effectiveness of trainings...

Mock and bait strategies are good ways to make people more engaging and vigil. Periodically simulate vulnerable scenarios for checking their consistency on the Security Practices. e.g: Create the following situations 1) Phone calls or chat messages requesting password sharing 2) Leaving important-like documents unattended near the printers or public places 3) Request third party access of computers and important resources. Whoever proving risky to such vulnerabilities should be give proper orientations and whoever recognizes the violations first can be rewarded too. (These ways have gained great results to percolate a healthy, engaging and vigil security culture at my workplaces)