Security awareness training (SAT) is a way for businesses to protect themselves from cyber attacks that specifically target the people that work for you.
As a managed service provider (MSP), you already know there are many sophisticated tools to prevent unauthorised access to your systems and data. This is why attackers employ a variety of tactics to target the staff of the businesses you support.
Therefore, there’s a great opportunity here to offer and encourage security awareness training for your clients. And to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks against their businesses.
What is Security Awareness Training?
Security awareness training is any form of education for staff in being able to spot, avoid and respond to cyber threats.
It’s also about establishing best practice in all aspects of digital safety.
The idea is to create a culture within the business where employees are equipped to better protect data assets and limit access. And to not fall prey to social engineering tactics.
SAT training can come in a variety of forms, often by design, to make the learning easier to digest. Effective engagement is key to ensuring staff take on board the lessons and apply them in practice.
Vendor partners who offer Security Awareness Training include:
- Huntress Security Awareness Training
- Usecure Human Risk Management
- KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Social Engineering Tactics – How Attackers Find Our Weaknesses
Social engineering is a tactic employed by attackers to manipulate and lure end-users into taking an action that helps them hijack systems or steal data. They do this by exploiting human psychological weaknesses in a number of clever ways.
Here are just a few of the techniques employed by attackers every day to exploit us:
Phishing
Phishing is a technique that uses an electronic communication medium, usually email, to illicit sensitive or confidential information. It usually involves coercing or enticing users to click a malicious link. They do this using language to convey urgency, or some other psychological trigger.
It’s one of the most common types of cyberattack in circulation today. More sophisticated phishing attacks can target specific employees, which is called spear phishing or whaling.
Business Email Compromise (BEC)
This method involves the attacker attempt to trick a senior executive or budget holder into sending money or divulging confidential information. Sometimes the attacker will spoof the email of someone in the organisation with the authority to request one-off payments in this way to make them look more legitimate.
Watering Hole Attacks
In this type of attack. The criminals compromise a ‘trusted’ website frequented by an organisation with the aim of distributing malware through malicious links. This website will usually be one with low security which can be manipulated to trigger a malicious payload, which unwary users may not notice. Supply chain attacks work in a similar way.
5 Tips for Effective Security Awareness Training Programmes
Here are a few tips to consider when defining a security awareness training programme:
1 Set Regular Training Intervals
Though mileage will vary from one business to the next. It’s generally considered that every three months is a good target to aim for regular training. Some argue that monthly or bi-monthly is better, but there’s an argument that conducting training too often will result in a lack of engagement.
If you discover that many employees failed a phishing simulation, then you may need to increase this frequency.
2 Ensure Training is Relevant and Engaging
PowerPoint training slides can be somewhat dry and unengaging for most people. Especially if the subject is IT, and they’re not really IT-minded people.
If you’re able to use real-life examples in the training that will be much more effective. However, using a mixture of visual media for learning, backed up with quizzes to reinforce the knowledge works well too.
3 Cover Essentials and Topical Threats
Training topics should cover the broad spectrum of threats staff need to look out for in phishing attacks. It should also cover good practice in security, from handling data to using public wi-fi.
It’s important to explain the ‘why’ along with the ‘what’ in order to build an effective security-savvy culture.
4 Perform Regular Phishing Simulations
To ensure employees are putting into practice what they’ve learned, phishing simulations are an effective tool to deploy to see how effective the training has been.
It’s better to test the human factor in your business in this way, than wait for a real-life attack.
5 Measure the Impact of Training
Measuring the impact of the training is important because you can see if it’s working or not. Running a post-training quiz will demonstrate whether employees have understood what they’ve learned.
Comparing these results with the results of simulated phishing campaigns also demonstrates the effectiveness of the training. And helps demonstrate the value of security awareness training to your clients.
Why SAT Training is an Essential Component in Cyber Risk Reduction Strategies
According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024, produced by the UK Government last. The most common type of attack to breach UK business last year were Phishing attacks. With 84% of those surveyed being affected.
If businesses are not training their workforces to spot malicious emails as a bare minimum, they’re leaving themselves open to attack. Also, for the best results, that training needs to cover much more than suspicious-looking emails.
Training needs to be engaging, relevant and regular if you want to get the most out of it. As an MSP, encouraging a security awareness training programme for your clients, is a very worthwhile endeavour, especially if you can demonstrate the value with phishing simulations.
Have you seen the value of promoting security awareness training for your clients? We’d love to hear your story in the comments.
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I'm a small business owner, technical writer and blogger, with 15 years experience in corporate IT. I frequently attend MSP peer groups and create content relevant to IT service providers and business owners.
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