We’re living in an increasingly digital world, and cyber criminals cause problems for organizations of all sizes as a result. That’s why it’s important to make user awareness training a priority at your company and keep it top-of-mind all year round.
Brian Forward, Ignite Security Solutions Engineer, explains exactly why User Awareness Training (UAT) is fundamental to any cyber security strategy.
“Most compromises we see happen at the user level these days, not because of some sophisticated operation. Without user awareness training, your organization is exposed regardless of what other security tactics you’ve implemented.”
You see, your team members are your first line of defense against cyber crime, so it’s imperative that they build an understanding of modern social engineering topics and trends – and you can have massive influence here.
Plant the seed of cyber resilience now and watch your team’s competency grow stronger each week with Ignite Solutions’ User Awareness Training system. It’s one of the best ways to develop and continually enhance your company’s cyber security posture.
Ignite Solutions’ User Awareness tool is a no-brainer
Our UAT online portal becomes your one-stop-shop for security awareness and policy, all within a single login. It’s easy to see where individuals are on their journey to cyber resilience, and to report on the bigger picture.
Users can track their own progress from their dashboard and engage with content in the newsfeed. They can acknowledge policies and procedures, rival their co-workers on the user score leaderboard, and even check if their email address is listed on the dark web.
We understand that everyone learns differently, so we offer a new weekly content drip, but also the full backlog of archived videos on-demand for those who prefer to watch several segments at a time.
The policy library comes loaded with templates built on industry best practices that you can leverage, or work with an Ignite Security expert to craft policies and procedures customized for your team and industry. (More on how they can help coming up shortly!)
Users are empowered by what they learn without being overwhelmed, and behavioural change can take place.
Ignite Solutions’ User Awareness Training (UAT) platform features automated, fully customizable programming that helps your team stay secure and reinforces the importance of practicing cyber safe habits.
Administrators and managers can continuously evaluate their team’s progress and partner with an Ignite Technology Adoption Educator to fine-tune your User Awareness programming.
Build out your user awareness training program with an established system and quarterly curated content with an Ignite Security Expert (which you can personalize by role or job function) that provides everyone on your team a unique educational experience, helping you meet your collective goals.
Cyber resilience is built incrementally
Let’s talk about why micro-learnings are such a valuable approach to cyber security training that sticks. Often enough, companies will choose to run an annual recertification where their team engages with cyber security just once per year. They will blast team members with a few hours of content, then test and re-certify the team and call it done for the year. Check mark, you’re good, right?
Wrong. Technology is always evolving – and so is risk.
Consistent, up-to-date content dripped to your team members in a regular cadence is incredibly impactful. Keep risk management, compliance, and cyber security top-of-mind through cumulative learning on a digital system that can capture insights and build the foundation for an even deeper understanding.
Why our User Awareness content sticks:
- Educational micro-learnings offer brief knowledge testing quizzes to help learners engage with and understand the content (and retain it)
- Monthly newsletters take a deeper dive into relevant topics
- The training module allows users to complete any long form training you need to run, including annual recertifications
- Our experts know what topics you need covered to optimize user awareness across your organization
Cyber resilience is a group effort: Everyone plays a role in organizational security
A well-rounded approach to User Awareness Training helps everyone at your company understand how they play a part in preventing security incidents.
At every level in your organization, team members share something in common – access to systems and data that matter. A breach can come in many forms, but human access points (users are prone to human error) are critical to cyber criminals gathering personally identifiable information (PII).
It’s important for your team to see how trending tactics are showing up in their lives and on their screens. This way they can spot attempts without taking the bait and report questionable communications to their key security stakeholder ASAP.
“Your employees need to know what to do when a potential threat comes up. Incident reporting procedures are something everyone should know about, no matter their role,” Shawn Edwards, our Director of Security Operations shares.
Reach policy and procedural excellence with Ignite Security’s experts
Ignite Solutions’ UAT platform allows you to interact with templates and build out your own policies and procedures from scratch, or you can upload your existing security policy documents right into the system.
“In every industry, people at all competency levels need to use technology and automation, as it’s taken over numerous tasks that optimize productivity. There is no technical control you can implement, or hardware you can buy that covers your people, but you can build policies, procedures, and a knowledge-base that helps them access digital assets and information within your defined standards,” explains Shawn.
Any organization that has a compliance requirement has legal obligations to educate their users in a specific way. That’s why Ignite’s consultative approach is so important. Across the Solutions, Security, and Adoption teams, discovery is the first thing we dive into.
If you need a hand drafting new custom policies, you can partner with an Ignite Security specialist to design governance that’s right for your team and industry. Our experts map out the needs of your organization and deliver appropriate UAT programming.
Personalize programming based on user insights with Ignite’s Technology Adoption Educators
Ignite Solutions’ UAT tool provides fantastic insights that you can use to maximize results. It’s also a great indicator of who might need extra support and topics you might want to focus a bit more on. User scores and other insights help inform all kinds of refinements you can make to your education roadmap.
Our Technology Adoption Educators help bring cyber security and policy to a human level so everyone, no matter their technical competency, can understand. We look at UAT platform usage and evaluate the insights captured together to continually build on your team’s knowledge.
“If you use the leaderboard function in the platform, you can explore all kinds of gamification options and ways to incentivize users to get the top score,” Valerie Knight, Manager of Ignite Technology Adoption and Education says.
Ignite’s Technology Adoption Educators can further tailor training and quarterly webinars that target relevant topics and support on-going learning with your team.
Did you know that our user awareness training system is included in One Support?
One Support, our comprehensive managed IT service bundle from Ignite Solutions, moves you to a secure, stable state with fundamental support and security options.
Book your free demo of the online UAT portal today and chat with an expert about everything One Support includes!
Are you following us on LinkedIn? Join us for Cyber Security Awareness month content this October.
~Sarah Allen, Content Coordinator