Why the human factor is important in your cyber security strategy

With cybercrime on the rise, employees are increasingly vulnerable to online risks. Did you know that human errors are still the leading cause of cybersecurity incidents? Yes, one click, and you hit the jackpot: a whole lot of trouble! Thankfully, we can prevent that with a robust cyber awareness plan. Because, let's be honest, you likely have better things to do than putting out fires, right?

But how do you start setting up your awareness campaign? What activities do you need to do to avoid these human errors? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Together with our awareness expert, Freya Covens, we’ve listed all the different activities you should include in your awareness campaign - as well as several tips to make them more effective!

The first thing you need to do is set up an awareness schedule/calendar. An awareness calendar strategically schedules and organizes different cybersecurity activities throughout the year, such as training sessions, phishing exercises, and newsletters. When developing an effective awareness program, it's crucial to be interactive and diverse in the approach. By covering different topics, individuals remain vigilant and informed about potential threats, reducing the likelihood of falling prey to cyber-attacks.

Keeping your employees engaged might be a challenging task - have you thought about creating a security mascot?

Security mascots can become a central figure in your awareness campaigns. The mascot can help you convey important privacy and security messages in a friendly and approachable manner, making the information more digestible and memorable for employees. Additionally, the mascot’s presence attracts your employees’ attention and helps to create a sense of connection and familiarity with your audience, creating a visual recognition point that makes messages more memorable and recognizable.

Frequent distribution of cybersecurity newsletters and flyers keeps employees informed about the latest trends, threats, and best practices. However, what good are these newsletters if employees don’t read them? Have you thought about creating cartoons (e.g., your security mascot) to make these newsletters more interesting? Or creating short scenarios where the decisions of employees lead to different outcomes – such as getting hacked or not?

The true value of these newsletters lies in employees actively reading and absorbing the insights and advice shared within them, making it very important that the content is presented in an interactive and engaging way.

Regular phishing exercises are like cyber self-defense: they help to train your employees to spot and avoid actual phishing emails. These exercises provide valuable hands-on experience in identifying and reporting suspicious emails, empowering individuals to play an active role in protecting the organization from potential cyber threats. By identifying and educating employees who may fall for phishing attempts, organizations can proactively strengthen their defenses and minimize the risk of successful phishing attacks.

A crucial aspect of these phishing exercises is teaching the employees the process for reporting the phishing emails. Based on our experience, we have observed that the more steps employees need to take to report phishing emails, the less likely they are to actually follow through with reporting them. For example, if employees are required to log a ticket instead of simply clicking on a button in Outlook, they are less likely to report a phishing email, so make your reporting process as easy as possible!