Cybersecurity tools and technology play an important role in protecting an organization, but employees remain a critical part of the defense. Every day, employees make decisions about email, passwords, sensitive information, applications, devices, and access to company systems. Those decisions can either strengthen security or introduce risk.
That’s why continually educating employees about current cyber threats and secure practices is so important.
While security awareness training may be required to meet certain compliance obligations, an effective program should accomplish much more than checking a box. Even strong technical controls can be undermined if employees don’t understand their responsibilities for safeguarding sensitive data, recognizing suspicious activity, and protecting company resources.
Security awareness training should also be part of a broader cybersecurity program that brings people, processes, and technology together to manage risk across the organization.
What Does It Take to Create Effective Security Awareness Training?
Effective security awareness training should be relevant to employees, reflect the threats they actually face, and reinforce secure behaviors throughout the year.
A useful way to think about your approach is to answer three questions:
- Who should be involved?
- What should employees learn?
- How can you make the training relevant, memorable, and actionable?
Let’s look at each.
The Who: 3 Distinct Audiences for Security Awareness Training
Not every employee encounters cybersecurity risk in the same way. To make security awareness training more relevant and improve retention, organizations should consider the responsibilities and risks associated with different audiences.
1. Management
There can be a disconnect between the boardroom and the security team. Closing that gap requires connecting cybersecurity to the larger business objectives and risks that senior leaders and board members care about.
Management should understand that cybersecurity is not solely an IT issue. A successful attack can affect operations, finances, regulatory compliance, customers, reputation, and the organization’s ability to conduct business.
Executives can also be particularly attractive targets for phishing, impersonation, business email compromise, and other social engineering attacks because of their authority and access to sensitive information.
Training for management should reflect those risks while giving leaders the information they need to make informed cybersecurity decisions.
2. Specialized Roles
The risks facing an accounting or finance team may look very different from those facing HR, procurement, IT, or an executive team.
For example, employees responsible for financial transactions may be targeted with fraudulent payment or banking requests. HR professionals regularly handle sensitive employee information. IT personnel may have elevated system privileges. Employees in healthcare environments may work with protected health information.
Role-based training can help employees understand the threats most relevant to their responsibilities and recognize how an attacker might target their specific access or authority.
3. All Personnel
Everyone with access to company email, systems, devices, applications, or data should understand basic security principles.
Company-wide training should explain common cyber threats, employee responsibilities, company policies, and what employees should do when they encounter suspicious activity.
Security awareness should also begin during onboarding. Establishing expectations early helps employees understand that protecting company information and systems is part of their job—not simply the responsibility of the IT or security team.
Once you know who should receive training, the next question is what that training should cover.
The What: Critical Security Awareness Training Topics
An effective security awareness program should address the ways cybercriminals are targeting organizations today. Training content should be reviewed regularly as technology, employee behaviors, and attacker tactics evolve.
The following topics provide a strong foundation.
1. Phishing and Spear Phishing
Phishing continues to be one of the most important threats employees need to recognize.
Attackers may impersonate executives, coworkers, vendors, customers, financial institutions, or familiar technology platforms to convince employees to click malicious links, open attachments, disclose credentials, or authorize transactions.
Employees should understand how to evaluate unexpected messages, verify unusual requests using a trusted communication method, and report suspected phishing attempts.
For additional guidance, review these ways to protect employees from phishing attacks.
2. Social Engineering
Cybercriminals don’t always need to compromise technology if they can convince a person to give them what they want.
Social engineering attacks manipulate people into providing information, granting access, transferring money, or taking another action that benefits the attacker. These attacks can occur through email, phone calls, text messages, social media, video calls, or even in-person interactions.
Training should help employees recognize common warning signs such as unusual urgency, requests for secrecy, unexpected changes to established processes, and requests involving credentials or sensitive information.
Employees should also understand that a familiar name, email address, voice, or appearance does not automatically make a request legitimate.
3. AI-Enabled Phishing and Impersonation
Artificial intelligence has made it easier for attackers to create convincing messages and impersonate trusted individuals.
Poor grammar and obvious spelling mistakes are no longer reliable indicators of a phishing attempt. AI can help attackers create polished emails, personalize messages using publicly available information, and produce increasingly convincing voice, image, and video content.
Employees should be trained to focus on the nature of the request rather than simply how professional the communication appears.
Organizations should also establish verification procedures for high-risk requests, particularly those involving payments, credentials, sensitive information, or changes to financial information.
4. Password and Credential Security
Employees should understand why password and credential security matters, not simply memorize a list of password requirements.
Reusing passwords, sharing credentials, responding to credential requests, or storing passwords insecurely can expose both the employee and the organization.
Where appropriate, organizations should consider password managers and other controls that make secure credential practices easier for employees to follow.
5. Multi-Factor Authentication
Passwords alone may not provide sufficient protection for sensitive systems and information. Multi-factor authentication adds another layer of security when credentials are compromised.
Employees should understand how MFA works and why they should never approve an authentication request they did not initiate.
Unexpected or repeated MFA requests may indicate that an attacker already has an employee’s password and is attempting to gain access.
6. Malware and Ransomware
Employees should understand how malware and ransomware can reach an organization through malicious attachments, compromised websites, downloads, stolen credentials, and other attack methods.
Training should reinforce safe practices for opening attachments, downloading files, using applications, and responding when a device begins behaving unexpectedly.
Employees should also know how and where to report suspected malware quickly.
Organizations evaluating their broader defenses can use LBMC’s ransomware protection checklist as an additional resource.
7. Sensitive Data Handling
Employees need to understand what information their organization considers sensitive and their responsibilities for protecting it.
Depending on the organization, sensitive information may include customer data, employee records, financial information, intellectual property, health information, credentials, or other confidential business information.
Training should explain how sensitive data should be accessed, stored, transmitted, shared, and disposed of.
Most importantly, connect those expectations to employees’ actual responsibilities rather than relying solely on broad security policies.
8. Remote Work and Wireless Security
Employees increasingly access company systems and information from locations outside a traditional office.
Security awareness training should address the safe use of company devices, remote access, public Wi-Fi, personal devices, cloud applications, and sensitive information outside the workplace.
Employees should understand that convenience should not override established security controls.
9. Physical Security
Cybersecurity also has a physical component.
Employees should understand expectations related to building access, visitors, unattended devices, printed sensitive information, removable media, and unauthorized individuals attempting to access restricted areas.
A secure system can still be compromised if physical access is not appropriately controlled.
10. Reporting Suspicious Activity
Employees need a clear answer to one important question:
What should I do if something doesn’t look right?
Organizations should establish a simple process for reporting suspicious emails, unusual account activity, lost devices, accidental disclosures, suspected malware, and other potential security incidents.
Employees should know who to contact, how to report the issue, and why acting quickly matters.
The faster the security team knows about a potential problem, the faster the organization can investigate and respond.
The How: Make Security Awareness Training Stick
Knowing which topics to cover is only part of the challenge. Organizations also need to deliver security awareness training in a way employees can understand, remember, and apply.
A single annual presentation is unlikely to accomplish that.
Consider combining several methods, including:
- Security training during employee onboarding
- Periodic refresher training
- Short, focused training throughout the year
- Role-based training for higher-risk employees
- Phishing simulations
- Communications about new or emerging threats
- Real-world examples employees can relate to
- Reminders following security incidents or near misses
- Clear resources employees can reference when they have questions
Phishing simulations can be particularly useful because they allow organizations to evaluate how employees respond to realistic situations in a controlled environment.
The objective should not be to catch or embarrass employees. Simulations should reinforce training, identify areas that need additional attention, and help employees become more confident recognizing and reporting suspicious activity.
As security awareness programs mature, some organizations are also moving toward human risk management, which uses ongoing education, simulations, behavioral information, and reinforcement to better understand and reduce employee-related cyber risk.
5 Strategies to Help Employees Become More Security Savvy
There are many reasons cybersecurity controls can fail, but people are sometimes overlooked.
Technology can protect organizations against many threats, but it cannot eliminate every risky decision an employee might make. Employees may download company files to an unsecured device, send sensitive information to a personal account, connect through an unsecured network, share credentials, or respond to a convincing fraudulent request.
A strong security awareness program helps employees understand why those decisions matter and gives them practical guidance for making safer choices.
Here are five strategies that can help.
1. Create a Security-Conscious Culture
Security awareness should not be limited to an annual training session.
Use regular communication, reminders, short training exercises, and relevant examples to keep cybersecurity visible throughout the year. Include security education in employee onboarding and make sure senior leadership participates as well.
When executives and managers demonstrate that cybersecurity matters, employees are more likely to view it as an organizational priority rather than an IT requirement.
Security awareness should ultimately support the organization’s overall cybersecurity program, alongside policies, technical controls, risk management, incident response, and other safeguards.
2. Use Real Examples to Educate
Employees are more likely to remember training when they understand how an attack could affect their actual work.
Use realistic scenarios involving phishing, fraudulent invoices, credential theft, impersonation, sensitive information, or other threats employees may encounter.
Explain what made the situation suspicious, what the employee should have done, and what the potential consequences could have been.
Examples should reflect the organization’s industry and the responsibilities of different employees whenever possible.
3. Make It Easy for Employees to Help
Employees cannot respond appropriately if they don’t know what to do.
Provide clear documentation and easy-to-find resources. Establish a simple reporting and escalation process for suspicious messages and potential security incidents.
Employees should know where to go when they have a question and should not have to navigate a complicated process to report a concern.
Making secure behavior easier increases the likelihood that employees will follow the process when it matters.
4. Create a Supportive Learning Environment
Cybersecurity knowledge varies considerably across an organization.
Training should educate employees without assuming everyone begins with the same level of technical knowledge. Give employees opportunities to ask questions and reinforce the idea that reporting a potential mistake quickly is better than hiding it.
An employee who clicks a suspicious link and immediately reports it gives the security team an opportunity to respond. An employee who stays silent because they fear embarrassment or punishment may allow an incident to become more serious.
The goal is to build vigilance and accountability—not fear.
5. Secure C-Suite Buy-In
Security awareness programs are more effective when senior leadership understands and supports them.
Security teams should connect awareness initiatives to larger business risks and objectives. Rather than discussing cybersecurity exclusively in technical terms, explain how employee-related risk can affect operations, financial performance, compliance, customer relationships, and reputation.
Executives tend to think in terms of risk and business impact. Frame the conversation accordingly.
It is equally important to keep those discussions grounded in the organization’s actual risk profile. Credible, relevant communication helps security leaders build the support they need when a serious issue requires executive attention.
How Often Should Employees Receive Security Awareness Training?
There is no single training schedule that is right for every organization, but security awareness should be an ongoing effort rather than a once-a-year event.
Employees encounter cyber threats throughout the year, and those threats continue to change.
Organizations may use a combination of annual training, shorter periodic modules, phishing simulations, emerging-threat communications, and targeted education based on an employee’s role or demonstrated risk.
Training frequency should reflect factors such as the organization’s industry, regulatory requirements, risk profile, workforce, technology environment, and the types of sensitive information employees handle.
The goal is not simply more training. It is consistent, relevant reinforcement that improves employee behavior over time.
How Do You Know If Security Awareness Training Is Working?
Training completion is useful to track, but completion alone does not tell you whether employee behavior is improving.
Organizations can consider measures such as:
- Training completion rates
- Phishing simulation results
- The percentage of employees who report simulated phishing attempts
- Repeat phishing failures or other higher-risk behaviors
- Employee performance by department or role
- How quickly suspicious activity is reported
- Changes in results over time
Metrics should be used to improve the program and identify where employees may need additional education—not simply to produce another dashboard.
If employees consistently struggle with a particular type of threat, that information should influence future training.
Security Awareness Is an Ongoing Commitment
Cybersecurity has technical components, but effective security also depends on people.
Employees who understand the threats they face, recognize their responsibilities, and know how to respond can become an important layer of defense for the organization.
Effective security awareness training should therefore be relevant, practical, role-based, and continuous. It should evolve as threats change and reinforce secure behavior throughout the year.
Most importantly, security awareness should not operate in isolation. It should complement technical controls, security policies, risk assessments, incident response planning, and the other elements of an effective cybersecurity program.
Are You Ready to Enhance Your Security Awareness Training?
Whether you’re looking to strengthen an existing security awareness initiative, provide employees with more relevant training, or better understand how human behavior affects your cybersecurity risk, LBMC can help.
Our cybersecurity professionals work with organizations to strengthen security across people, processes, and technology.
Explore LBMC Cybersecurity services or connect with our team to discuss your organization’s security awareness and cybersecurity needs.
