The latest GOV Cyber Breaches Survey revealed that only 18% of businesses and 17% of charities have provided a form of cyber security training in the last 12 months.

At the South East Cyber Resilience Centre (SECRC), we deliver security awareness training to help keep our businesses community safe. Security Awareness Training includes a continuously evolving set of topics. Here, we’ve compiled answers to some of the most common questions we get about Security Awareness Training from businesses.

1. What is security awareness training?
2. Why is it important to support my staff with security awareness training?
3. What is the first step in starting security awareness training?
4. How often should my staff undergo security awareness training?
5. What is the best method for delivering security awareness training?

What is security awareness training?

Security awareness training provides simple and effective knowledge for people to understand their working environment and provides the confidence to employees so they have the confidence to challenge when something doesn’t look right.

Security awareness training is focused on those with little or no cyber security or technical knowledge and is delivered in small, succinct modules using real-world examples.

Security awareness training is tailored to each individual audience to provide the right level of skills and context for your business. At the Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East, we use cyber security trainers who are highly knowledgeable, personable and friendly and pride themselves on providing the right environment for your people to feel comfortable and to ask questions.

Why is it important to support my staff with security awareness training?

Security awareness training is critical because cybercrime can affect any size and kind of business – think when not if. Threats are continually changing, your employees are the biggest target in your business. Hackers know staff can be soft targets and with the right methods be exploited to hand over data and money.

Staff are your front line of defence. The majority of attacks rely on some form of human error. For example, a simple Phishing attack can open the door to many other attacks such as ransomware, invoice hijacking etc. It's vital that all staff members are aware of how attackers operate and are on high alert when noticing suspicious activity.

The 2021 Cyber Security Breaches Report found that just 34% of companies manage cyber security risks through cyber risk assessments, and only 32% of businesses are monitoring staff activities.

What is the first step in starting security awareness training?

There’s no short-term technological fix for cybersecurity and criminals are in a never-ending race to one-up each other. The best long-term, cost-effective answer for your business is to provide cybersecurity awareness training that develops and embeds a culture in your organisation.

The South East Cyber Resilience Centre (SECRC). can offer your staff security awareness training to provide simple and effective knowledge so your staff understand their environment and give them the confidence to challenge when something doesn’t look right.

We help you start your journey to understand the basics and why cyber security is important to all businesses regardless of size or sector.

How often should my staff undergo security awareness training?

Its important business is kept secure by implementing regular security awareness training with your workforce. With such an evolving threat landscape in cyber security, it’s important you’re topping up on your staff’s knowledge every 6-12 months.

What is the best method for delivering security awareness training?

The South East Cyber Resilience Centre (SECRC) can deliver your staff security awareness training through a half-day session either online or in-person in your office (COVID rules permitting). The security awareness training session is interactive for attendees and builds upon key learnings through examples specific to your business and the industry you work in.

Have you got any success stories or feedback from your training sessions?

Here at The South East Cyber Resilience Centre, we have delivered many Security Awareness Training sessions to businesses across the region. The Thames Valley Partnership, a charity works with organisations operating within the Criminal Justice system and allied services to provide long-term solutions to the problems of crime and social exclusion.

A representative from the Thames Valley partnership said:

Ready to prepare your staff with security awareness training? Contact us today to learn more.