Counting the ways we make information security training innovative and fun

In a previous post, I covered why information security training is essential for every organization and how we developed our Information Security Advocate program. It’s a program more than 10 years in the making and always evolving because we know that any effective learning program is one that assesses and refines its approaches.

Pushing the boundaries

The Accenture Information Security Behavior Change and Awareness team led by Steve Zutovsky and Urszula Fabiszak pushes the boundaries on innovative learning approaches to evolve our program. What the team comes up with is not only innovative and fun, but behind all that goodness are effective learning and behavioral practices that bring about positive results.

Here are some of the ways this innovation is happening:

Secure Behavior Score. This scoring system is the latest innovation to move the needle on improving secure behaviors across Accenture. It uses performance data to deliver a tailored score for our people. The output identifies an individual’s gaps in security performance and behaviors and gives personalized guidance to drive further accountability and nudge behavior change. Accenture leaders can quickly filter data to gain an aggregate view of secure behaviors across the company, pinpoint risk, and drive targeting actions for improvement.

Infotainment. Our award-winning video series, Hacker Land, brings to life relatable, current threats in global work and personal life environments. Hacker Land episodes, with more than 4.5 million views, dominate as the most played and liked videos on Accenture’s internal media platform over the course of eight seasons.

CyberFests. Our CyberFests are educating a record number of Accenture people on critical security behaviors. With an easy-to-use, on-demand toolkit, anyone can host in-person or virtual community learning activities. The customizable content complements the growing trend of creating personalized learning paths.

Smishing testing. We’re piloting smishing testing through a voluntary program that tests our people’s knowledge on current smishing trends, and how to defend and avoid such threats.?

Mobile app. Our Always Safe mobile app, deployed to our Client Data Protection community, combines critical cybersecurity resources, training, and monitoring into one place to create an easy, fast, all-in-one solution for our client teams’ cybersecurity needs.

Virtual reality. We’re also paving the way with virtual reality. Our VR training improves the retention of safe physical and cybersecurity behaviors through six immersive real-world and fantasy virtual-reality modules. We’ve showcased our VR strategy at cybersecurity and change management conferences and have shared our experiences with other organizations.

All our people make a difference

Almost daily, the world of information security changes, introducing new, more complex, and sophisticated threats. It’s important to remember that an organization’s people are in a unique position to understand and make sense of security risk.

In our case at Accenture, through our fine-tuned and innovative learning programs and processes, all Accenture people understand they play a role in keeping Accenture and our clients’ data secure. What’s rewarding to see is that a culture of shared accountability has developed across the company.

As always, I am happy to talk more with you about information security learning programs and other cybersecurity topics. Let’s share what we know to secure what we must.