6 Tips For Training Your Team On IT Security

It's no secret that cyber security attacks are on the rise. The recent surge in sophisticated technology that can harm your business is more evident than ever. In the age of the digital revolution, it's imperative to educate your workers with adequate security training. Doing so will ensure a vital line of defence against dangerous cyberattacks. Employees need to be engaged and realise the significance of the cyber security training process.

Keep reading for the six best tips for training your team on IT security.

Relate Training To Your Businesses Niche

One of the most important parts of cybersecurity training is making it specific to your business. Employees need to be trained to identify specific threats and have adequate action plans in place to combat any issues. A lot of businesses cite physical security errors, phishing attacks and poor computer habits as the biggest threats to their online security.

Training needs to be industry-specific, relevant and especially related to job roles. If your employees are confident in their abilities to troubleshoot any security issues, you'll have a much greater chance of staving off malicious attacks.

Build Awareness

Once your employees have received their crucial IT security training, the next logical step is to build awareness. People need to be incentivised to keep their knowledge up to date and effective. Studies have shown that increased training and awareness of cybersecurity allows businesses to motivate their employees to engage deeper with the functionality of their roles.

Employees are often motivated by the recognition of good business practices and will most likely work harder to combat any security threats.

Make Your Training Engaging

Training can be notoriously time-consuming, boring and lethargic. The key thing about delivering effective working practices is their ability to stick in the mind of your employees. Cybersecurity training needs to be delivered in a memorable and engaging way that brings the best out in people.

Workers can be engaged by taking part in true to life threat scenarios or simulations that enact daily life in the office. The goal is to incorporate a hands-on system that gives your employees the freedom to learn from real-life situations.

Make Your Training Interesting

If your IT security training isn’t interesting, it’ll likely be forgotten by lunchtime. Valuable time and resources will be wasted and employees still won’t have the necessary tools to combat cyber threats.

Training techniques need to be inviting and a good way of achieving this is by role-playing exercises. Have your employees separate into two distinct teams. Team One represents a cyber security threat whilst Team Two represents your business. Team A's task is to infiltrate secure information from Team B. You'll witness your employees play a much more active role in defending your business.

Once the scenario has been played out, switch around the roles and have a meeting at the end to find out what happened.

Simplicity Is Key

Security training needs to be simple and collated into easily digestible chunks of information. Don’t overwhelm your team with vast swathes of information that they’ll have a hard time remembering.

Break the training down into segments or modules that can be completed over the course of a month. Take a routine approach and schedule specific training classes on the same day each week. This will ensure up-to-date, frequent training that is both consistent and memorable.

Try 'Live Fire' Training Exercises

This is a fun exercise that can work to educate an entire organisation. Cybersecurity teams ingeniously simulate attacks on all major departments and measure the outcomes. These will most likely be phishing or piracy attacks and is a great way to identify the overall number of people that were tricked or deceived.

You can use this training technique to identify weak areas within your organization and focus on specific training for individual teams.

Conclusion

Cyber and IT security training are essential components for any business to truly thrive without fear of attack. Businesses are targeted for a whole host of different reasons and having adequate training that is engaging, informative and simple is the best way to protect your enterprise from future cyber threats.