What is Security Awareness?

Security awareness addresses the human side of cybersecurity by preparing individuals to recognize and respond to social engineering tactics and manipulation techniques that technology alone can't stop. It focuses on educating employees, contractors, vendors, and stakeholders to recognize and respond to threats like phishing, social engineering, and other human-targeted attacks.

According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the median time for a user to click a malicious link is just 21 seconds. In many cases, sensitive data is entered within the next 28 seconds, meaning a phishing attack can lead to full compromise in under one minute.

This highlights the critical need for engaging, targeted, and behavior-driven security awareness training. Empowering people with the right knowledge and tools helps reduce risk, prevent incidents, and strengthen overall cyber resilience.

Why is Security Awareness Important?

Even the most advanced security technologies can be bypassed if people aren't trained to recognize threats. Without security awareness training, employees and other users often become easy targets for attacks like phishing, ransomware, and social engineering—putting the entire organization at risk.

Benefits of effective security awareness training:

• Enhances cyber resilience by turning users into a proactive line of defense
• Reduces security incidents and the high costs of breaches, downtime, and recovery
• Improves phishing detection and reporting, lowering the success rate of attacks
• Supports compliance with key regulations such as GDPR, ISO 27001, and HIPAA

Core Objectives of Security Awareness

A well-designed security awareness program should:

• Educate users on common cyber threats, such as phishing, malware, and social engineering
• Encourage secure habits and informed decision-making to reduce human error
• Foster a security-first culture across all levels of the organization
• Support compliance with international standards and regulatory requirements

The Role of Employees & Executives

Building a strong security culture requires commitment at every level of the organization—from frontline staff to top leadership.

Employees are often the first target in cyber attacks, making their awareness and day-to-day decisions critical to organizational security.

Executives play a key role in driving success by setting the tone from the top—prioritizing security, leading by example, and ensuring adequate resources and support for ongoing training initiatives.

How to Build an Effective Security Awareness Program

An effective security awareness program must do more than check compliance boxes—it should deliver targeted, role-specific training that adapts to evolving threats and user behavior, creating lasting behavioral change across the organization.

Let’s take a closer look at what it takes to build a successful program.

Customize training by role and risk level

Tailor content to specific departments, job functions, and threat exposure. For example, finance teams should be trained on invoice fraud, while IT teams need to understand technical exploitation risks.

Include everyone with access to systems and data

Extend training beyond full-time employees to include vendors, contractors, and third-party partners who interact with your infrastructure or handle sensitive information.

Incorporate modern, engaging training methods

Use a mix of gamified learning, realistic phishing simulations, and microlearning modules to keep training interactive, relevant, and easy to retain—especially in fast-paced work environments.

Who Owns Security Awareness in an Organization?

Ownership of security awareness varies by organization size and structure.

In large enterprises, dedicated roles such as Security Awareness Managers or Security Behavior and Culture Managers typically lead these programs, often within the IT security or Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) teams.

In small to mid-sized businesses, the responsibility often falls to cross-functional teams, including HR, IT managers, and security leads.

Some organizations choose to outsource their programs to managed security service providers like Keepnet, ensuring expert-led, fully managed, and scalable training solutions.

Security Awareness for Different Sectors

Industries like finance, healthcare, energy, and government face unique cybersecurity threats and strict regulatory demands. Security awareness programs must be adapted to each sector’s specific risks, compliance standards, and operational context.

• Finance: Targeted by phishing, fraud, and insider threats. Training should focus on data protection, fraud prevention, and compliance with PCI DSS, SOX, and GLBA.
• Healthcare: High risk of data breaches and ransomware. Programs must cover PHI protection, secure communication, and compliance with HIPAA and GDPR.
• Energy & Utilities: Vulnerable to nation-state and infrastructure attacks. Training should address OT security, physical access risks, and NERC CIP compliance.
• Government & Public Sector: Frequent targets of espionage and ransomware. Programs must align with NIST, FISMA, and ISO 27001, with emphasis on handling classified and citizen data securely.

Measuring Security Awareness: Key Metrics & Reporting

Measuring performance is the first step toward improvement—without clear metrics, enhancing your security awareness training becomes guesswork. By tracking meaningful data points, organizations can assess training effectiveness and strengthen their overall cyber resilience.

Core Training Metrics

• Completion Rates: Percentage of employees who finish assigned training.
• Phishing Click Rates: Number of users clicking on simulated phishing emails.
• Exam Scores: Test results indicating how well users retain key concepts.
• Engagement Levels: Degree of user interaction with the training material.

Outcome-Focused Metrics for Real Impact

• Repeat Offenders: Users who fail phishing simulations multiple times.
• Phishing Susceptibility Rate: Share of users who fall for phishing attacks.
• Phishing Dwell Time: How long it takes employees to report or respond to a phishing threat.

For a deeper dive into how to track, analyze, and act on these metrics, check out Keepnet’s article: What are the Metrics for Evaluating Security Awareness Efforts.

Common Challenges in Security Awareness

Many security awareness programs fall short due to poor engagement and lack of real behavioral change. Common challenges include:

• Generic, one-size-fits-all training that doesn’t resonate with users
• Low participation and retention, leading to limited impact
• Knowledge-behavior gap, where users understand risks but still act insecurely

How to overcome these challenges

To improve the effectiveness of your security awareness program and drive real behavior change, consider the following strategies:

• Segment your audience – Tailor content to departments, roles, and risk levels
• Use hyper-personalized training – Deliver relevant, contextual content to boost engagement
• Adopt microlearning – Break content into short, digestible sessions for better retention
• Provide role-based education – Align training with users’ specific responsibilities
• Apply behavior-based methods – Focus on influencing actions, not just awareness
• Engage through multiple channels – Reinforce learning via email, LMS, chat, and in-app prompts

By combining these strategies, organizations can move beyond awareness and build a true security-first culture.

To discover how to create a hyper-personalized, AI-powered security awareness program, read Keepnet’s guide: How to Create a Security Awareness Program?

Security Awareness: Key Training Areas & Best Practices

An effective security awareness program should cover a wide range of threat types while using modern, engaging methods that influence real behavior change. Below is a breakdown of what to train on and how to deliver that training effectively:

Table 1: Key Training Categories and Methods

Most Effective Training Methods

To maximize impact, security awareness programs should go beyond basic instruction and use methods that drive real engagement and behavior change:

• Hyper-personalized training – Adapted to each employee’s risk profile and behavior patterns
• Behavior-based training – Designed to shift habits, not just deliver information
• Role-based training – Targeted learning that reflects job-specific risks
• Nudging – Subtle, well-timed prompts to reinforce secure actions in daily workflows
• Gamification – Interactive challenges and rewards that increase engagement and retention

Keepnet Security Awareness Program

Keepnet’s Security Awareness Training adapts to your team’s cybersecurity maturity, risk levels, and behaviors—offering personalized content instead of generic modules.

Designed to foster a security-first culture, the program aligns your teams around proactive threat detection and response.

With 2,100+ training materials from 15+ global providers in 36+ languages, it delivers inclusive, localized content for diverse teams.

How It Works – 4 Key Steps

Keepnet’s program follows a structured approach that drives continuous improvement and lasting behavioral change.

1. Assess Awareness: Establish a baseline using surveys and phishing simulations.
2. Train Effectively: Deliver dynamic, gamified training based on behavioral science.
3. Promote Reporting: Encourage real-time phishing reports to boost engagement.
4. Gain Insights: Measure impact with executive dashboards and performance metrics.

Whether launching or scaling your program, Keepnet helps build a resilient, human-centric security culture with ease.

Why Security Awareness Training Matters

Security awareness training is a must—not just for compliance with regulations like ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA, but to actively protect against threats like phishing, ransomware, and insider risks. Without it, employees remain the weakest link, increasing the risk of data breaches and financial loss.

Keepnet’s Human Risk Management Platform goes beyond basic compliance, building a security-first culture, reducing incidents, and helping lower cyber insurance premiums through measurable risk reduction.

To explore the compliance side of security awareness in more depth, check out Keepnet’s guide on Security Awareness Compliance: Requirements, Frameworks, and Best Practices.

What are the 11 Benefits of Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training offers numerous benefits: it minimizes data breaches and email scams through better recognition of phishing attempts, ensures compliance with regulations, and builds a proactive security culture.

Please see the 11 benefits of cyber security awareness training below:

1. Build a security culture

Security awareness training is important for creating an organization's security culture focused. Here are the key reasons why security awareness training is important for your business culture:

• Reduces Human Error: A major study by IBM identified that 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Security awareness training addresses this problem by educating employees on the common mistakes that lead to security breaches and how to avoid them.

• Aligns Employee Behavior with Security Protocols: Regular and comprehensive training ensures that all employees are familiar with the organization’s security protocols. This alignment helps everyone understand their role in safeguarding the company's assets, making it more likely that they will act correctly in day-to-day operations.
• Preventing Social Engineering Attacks: Sacred Heart University’s report reveals that social engineering accounts for 98% of all cyber attacks. Cyber security awareness training programs include phishing simulations that train employees to recognize the signs of phishing emails and prevent them before they cause harm to individuals or the organization. This proactive approach will help employees identify and report security risks before they escalate into serious issues.
• Preventing Vishing Attacks: Keepnet’s 2024 Voice Phishing (Vishing) Response Report reveals that 70% of organizations have been victims of fake phone calls (vishing). Vishing attacks cost an average of $14 million per year per organization. Security awareness training with vishing simulations can help employees to recognize and respond to voice phishing attacks.
• Strengthens Defenses Against Cyber Attacks: Through continuous cyber security education on the latest security threats and defense mechanisms, employees become an active part of the organization's defenses. Well-informed employees can serve as the first defense against cyber attacks, reducing the organization’s overall security risk.
• Supports Compliance with Regulations: Many industries are subject to regulations that require security awareness training. Regular training helps organizations comply with these legal requirements, avoiding fines and other penalties for non-compliance.

2. Data Breach Risk Reduction

One of the key benefits of cybersecurity awareness training is reducing the risk of data breaches. Implementing security awareness training can boost the identification and reporting of phishing attacks. See this case study about how security awareness helps reduce data breach risk.

The case study above demonstrates the effectiveness of targeted training programs in empowering employees to proactively detect and respond to potential security threats and reduce data breach risks.

3. Minimizing Legal Risks by Educating Employees

Many industries are governed by strict regulations designed to protect sensitive information. For instance, in healthcare, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires the secure handling of patient data. Failing to comply with HIPAA can lead to fines of over $1.5 million. Similarly, the finance sector is regulated by laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires strict auditing and reporting standards to prevent fraud.

Security awareness training helps prevent these costly penalties by educating employees on these specific regulations. Employees learn not only what these rules are but also practical ways to apply them in their daily work tasks. This includes how to properly secure and handle confidential information and understanding the legal consequences of non-compliance. By teaching this knowledge, businesses can ensure they adhere to these regulations and avoid severe legal and financial penalties.

4. Boosting Employee Confidence through Training

The other key benefit of security awareness training is raising employee confidence. When employees understand and are trained in security, they feel more competent and confident in managing data. This leads to a more secure workplace and greater job performance.

Research from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) supports this, showing that well-trained employees experience a 70% increase in confidence when handling sensitive information. This increased confidence not only improves their performance but also contributes to a safer and more productive workplace.

In addition, findings from expert Devlin Pec show that 92% of employees feel that training has a positive impact on their engagement at work. This shows that investing in comprehensive cybersecurity training not only strengthens security but also creates a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

5. Building Customer Trust

Building customer trust is critical to any business and one of the significant benefit of cyber security awareness training. When customers trust a company, they are more likely to remain loyal and recommend it to others via refer-a-friend program. This trust is especially important in industries where companies handle sensitive personal and financial information.

A survey by the Ponemon Institute found that 74% of customers feel more confident in companies that train their employees in cybersecurity. This suggests that customers see security training as a sign of reliability and commitment to their security.

By providing regular security awareness training, companies demonstrate their commitment to protecting customer data. This includes educating employees on how to securely handle sensitive information and recognize potential cyber threats. Compliance with industry regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA etc, further assures customers of the company's commitment to data protection.

In addition, training employees to prevent common and dangerous cyber threats like phishing demonstrates proactive efforts to protect customer information. In summary, security awareness training not only protects data, but also builds customer trust by demonstrating that the company prioritizes their privacy and security.

6. Minimizing Human Error in Cybersecurity

According to the IBM Data Breach Report, human error costs companies an average of $5.01 million, paving the way to Business Email Compromise attacks (BEC). These errors also often result from small actions that can have big consequences, leading to security breaches. One of the key benefits of security awareness training is to reduce these risks by teaching employees a range of important practices:

• Clean Desk Policy
• Strong Password Creation
• Phishing Awareness
• Safe Data Handling
• Regular Security Audits and Assessments
• Incident Reporting Procedures
• Mobile Device Security
• Social Media Guidelines
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

By teaching these practices, organizations not only reduce the chances of errors leading to breaches but also create a strong culture of security awareness, greatly improving their overall security.

7. Minimizing The Risk of Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

The other key benefit of security awareness training is to minimize the risk of phishing and social engineering attacks. Security awareness training fights against phishing and social engineering threats by teaching employees to recognize suspicious signs like unexpected email requests for sensitive information or urgent demands that exploit human psychology.

Training includes verifying the authenticity of requests through secure channels like calling over the phone and staying updated on cybercriminal tactics. Employees also learn best practices such as looking at the links, sender address, and urgency language to spot phishing emails.

Security awareness training combined with phishing simulation tests creates the perfect strategy to help employees understand, identify, prevent, and report phishing threats. The training provides theoretical knowledge about phishing, while the simulation tests allow employees to safely practice recognizing and responding to fake phishing scenarios.

These measures not only prevent human mistakes but also strengthen the entire organization's defense against cyber threats.

8. Immediate Response to Cybersecurity Incidents

Employees who are well-informed about cyber threats are better equipped to quickly identify and report suspicious activities like phishing emails or other cyber threats. The quicker these threats are recognized and dealt with, the less damage they are likely to cause to the organization. This prompt response is so important in reducing the impact of a security breach. This is also one of the important benefit of security awareness training.

Research from Keepnet highlights that security awareness training can significantly enhance the rate of incident reporting, increasing it by up to 91% within a year. This improvement in reporting speeds up the organization's ability to respond to and manage security incidents effectively, further securing the workplace from potential cyber damage.

9. Protection Against the Most Common Attacks

One of the important benefit of security awareness training is teaching employees how to defend against common cyber threats like phishing, malware, and tricks used by hackers. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, these types of threats are responsible for 70% of breaches, underscoring the importance of being well-prepared.

Security awareness training plays a significant role in combatting these threats by educating individuals and organizations on how these attacks work, including the mechanics of phishing, malware, and other malicious strategies. By understanding the nature of these threats, employees are better equipped to recognize and respond to them effectively.

10. Cost Savings

The benefits of cybersecurity training extend to cost savings as well. Investing in a security awareness training program yields substantial financial benefits. IBM reports that the average cost of a data breach, now at $3.86 million, can be mitigated through the implementation of comprehensive training programs. Security awareness training reduces costs by minimizing the frequency and impact of data breaches.

When employees are trained to recognize and respond to security threats, they can prevent many potential breaches from happening. Preventing these breaches saves the company significant money in legal fees, fines, and recovery costs.

Additionally, well-trained employees can deal with small problems before they turn into bigger and more expensive issues, further protecting the organization’s financial resources.

11. Stay Secure Continuously

Staying secure continuously through cybersecurity awareness training is a key benefit for organizations looking to enhance their security posture. By continuously educating employees on how to identify and respond to cyber threats, companies can significantly reduce the likelihood and impact of cyberattacks.

Regular training sessions help employees stay alert to threats like social engineering attacks such as phishing, smishing, vishing, mfa phishing, or other cyber threats that put the company at data breach risk. The quicker and more effectively threats are managed, the less damage they are likely to cause. This proactive approach not only saves substantial costs associated with handling data breaches—such as investigation expenses, legal fees, and fines—but also preserves the company's reputation and customer trust.

In summary, ongoing security training is an important investment in the company's ability to handle threats, protecting both its finances and its relationships with customers and partners.

Please also look at our security awareness training statistics research to understand the importance of security awareness training for your business.

Editor's note This blog was updated on July 25, 2025.