Train employees - your best defense - for security awareness

New security threats and identity theft schemes are being developed every day, and large corporations continually invest millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to keep their information and identity safe and their network secure. But investing time and money into securing the organization and its customers can be completely undermined if employees don’t understand their role in the security plan. Even when an organization has state-of-the-art technology, strict security policies, and a highly skilled IT staff to manage policies, some organizations are not as secure as they could be. In fact, a recent survey conducted showed 40 percent of IT managers surveyed reported that their organization had experienced at least one security breach in the last year.


However, with the right training, employees can become an organization’s strongest security asset. A security awareness program enables organizations to improve their security posture by offering employees the knowledge they need to better protect the organization’s information through proactive, security-conscious behavior. To successfully protect information assets, employees at every level - from the top down - need a basic understanding of security policies as well as their respective responsibilities in protecting these assets.

Management personnel with security responsibilities require additional training. Without this understanding, organizations cannot hold employees accountable for protecting the organization’s resources and ultimately, its profitability.

To be effective, a security awareness program must be ongoing and include continuous training, communication and reinforcement. A one-time presentation or a static set of activities is not sufficient to address the ever-evolving threats to the security landscape. The key messages, tone and approach must be relevant to the audience and consistent with the values and goals of the organization. Equally important, an awareness program must influence behavior changes that deliver measurable benefits.