How do I train employees on cybersecurity without boring them?
Short answer
Keep training short, frequent and specific to the work people do: how to spot invoice fraud for finance, how to report a suspicious email for everyone. Make reporting easy and thank people who report, including when they report their own mistake.
The details
A blame culture makes people hide incidents, which is far more damaging than the original click. Training works best alongside technical controls such as MFA, which protect the business when someone does make a mistake.
What to do
- Run short sessions on real examples from your own inbox.
- Give everyone one clear way to report suspicious messages.
- Explain the payment verification rule to anyone who pays invoices.
- Repeat key points a few times a year rather than once.
Terms explained
- Social engineering
- Social engineering is the manipulation of people, rather than technology, to gain access, information or money.
- Business email compromise
- Business email compromise (BEC) is fraud in which a criminal impersonates or takes over a trusted email account to trick an organization into sending money or sensitive data.
- Multi-factor authentication
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires two or more kinds of proof to sign in, such as a password plus an app prompt, security key or biometric unlock of a passkey.
Sources
Related questions
- How can I tell if an email is a phishing attempt?
- Where should a small business start with cybersecurity?
- How much should a small business spend on cybersecurity?
- Are small businesses really targeted by hackers?
- What security policies does a small business need?
- What is cyber insurance and does a small business need it?
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