What Is Security Awareness? Definition, Benefits and Behaviour Change

Security awareness teaches people to recognize and report human-targeted attacks: phishing, social engineering, credential theft, and unsafe data handling. Technology blocks many threats; the Verizon 2026 DBIR still attributes 62% of breaches to the human element.

The gap between what programs measure and what breaches involve is the reason this matters. 84 percent of security leaders name training completion as one of their top program metrics (Gartner, "6 Ways to Transform Your Cybersecurity Awareness Program", G00840741, March 2026, 2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey, n=65). Over the same period the human element appeared in 62 percent of breaches (Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, p. 12). Completion is the easiest number to report and the weakest evidence that behavior changed.

Source: Gartner, "6 Ways to Transform Your Cybersecurity Awareness Program" (G00840741, March 2026), based on the 2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey (n=65).

In Gartner's 2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey (n=65), 66% of organizations run traditional awareness programs, 22% engagement-enhanced, and only 8% a formal security behavior and culture program (SBCP) (G00840741). Awareness is the entry point; SBCP is where behavior metrics and executive accountability live.

Security awareness vs SBCP (2026)

What this means for security leaders

If your program still measures completion while 41% of employees admit bypassing guidance (Gartner 2025 employee survey, n=175), call it awareness. When you track behavior under deadline pressure, you are building SBCP.

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.

What Is Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training is a structured program that helps employees recognize, avoid, and report cyber threats. The goal is not only knowledge but consistent behavior: verify requests, protect credentials, and report suspicious activity quickly.

Security awareness training and cybersecurity awareness training are often used interchangeably. Cybersecurity awareness training usually emphasizes digital threats and organizational security controls, while security awareness training can also cover privacy, physical security, and policy compliance.

To see how this runs as a continuous program across email, SMS, voice and QR, see Keepnet’s security awareness training software.

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.

Executivesplay 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.

Reporting security incidents

Employees are also the earliest warning an organisation has. Awareness should end in a simple reporting routine: recognise the incident (an unusual login, a phishing email, a data leak), note when and how it happened, tell the security team straight away and follow the incident response plan. Fast reporting is what stops one click from becoming a breach; for phishing-specific steps, see our email incident response guide.

How to Build a Security Awareness Plan

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

A workable security awareness plan answers eight questions, in this order:

1. Regions and regulations: which laws and frameworks apply in each country you operate in.
2. Industry and business units: which threats and data each unit handles.
3. Departments and roles: which teams face invoice fraud, credential theft or data requests.
4. Behavioural risk: who clicks, who reports, and how training adapts to both.
5. Work mode: the different risks of office, remote and hybrid work.
6. Experience level: content matched to each employee's skills and time in the organisation.
7. Culture and language: a tone and format that fit how people learn.
8. Risky behaviour and nudges: real-time prompts when someone is about to make a risky choice.

The three principles below apply at every step.

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 modulesto keep training interactive, relevant, and easy to retain, especially in fast-paced work environments.

Run it as a security awareness cycle

Most programmes repeat four stages: assessment (baseline knowledge and risk, often with a phishing simulation), education (role-specific training), reinforcement (simulations, nudges and recognition between lessons) and measurement (reporting rate, repeat failures and real incidents). What the measurement stage shows sets the next round of assessment, so the programme improves each cycle instead of repeating the same course.

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.
• Manufacturing and operational technology (OT): engineers, operators and contractors work with industrial control systems and SCADA, where one phishing click can reach physical processes. Training should cover insecure remote access, removable media and OT-specific scenarios, aligned with IEC 62443 and NERC CIP.
• Education (K-12 and higher education): schools and universities hold student identities, payment details and health records with small security teams. Programmes should reach both staff and students, with a focus on phishing, spoofed messages, ransomware, password habits and an easy way to report.

Measuring Security Awareness: Key Metrics & Reporting

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

Track behaviour rather than course completion: how often people report suspicious messages, how quickly they report, and whether repeat failures fall over time.

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.

Security Behaviour and Culture Programmes (SBCP)

A security behaviour and culture programme (SBCP) is the step after an awareness programme. Awareness gives employees knowledge. An SBCP chooses the few behaviours that cause most incidents, measures them, and makes leaders answerable for the results.

What an SBCP measures

Most programmes still report the easiest numbers. In Gartner's 2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey, 84% of organisations give priority focus to training completion and 73% to phishing reporting, while only 6% track policy exception requests (Gartner, G00840741, n=65). An SBCP adds measures a board can act on:

• report rate and time to report
• employees who repeat the same risky action
• the share and cost of incidents caused by employees
• exception requests, which show where a control slows people down

Why leadership matters

The same survey found that 45% of executive leaders are passive supporters of cybersecurity. An SBCP needs a named sponsor at the top, managers who are measured on reporting in high-risk teams, and budget to fix the controls employees work around.

How to start

Pick five to seven behaviours, such as verifying a change of bank details or reporting a suspicious call. Practise them every month with short training and realistic simulations across email, voice, SMS and QR codes, then check whether the behaviour changes. To see where your programme stands today, use the security culture maturity model.

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.

What Security Awareness Should Cover in 2026

Programmes now need to cover far more than email phishing. The attack patterns training should prepare employees for in 2026 are:

• QR code phishing (quishing) in emails, posters and parcels.
• Deepfake voice and video impersonation of executives and suppliers.
• MFA fatigue and fake authentication prompts.
• Voice phishing and callback scams that ask people to "call this number".
• Social engineering inside collaboration apps such as Teams and Slack.
• AI-personalised spear phishing that borrows real names, projects and tone.

For 50 training topics with examples and an annual plan, see Security Awareness Training Topics.

What to Include in a Security Awareness Presentation

Internal presentations usually fail for one reason: they describe threats instead of showing what people should do differently tomorrow. A deck that changes behaviour has five parts.

1. One incident from your own data, with names removed: a reported phishing email, a blocked attempt, a near miss. Borrowed examples from the news rarely land the same way.
2. The behaviour you are asking for, written as a single sentence. "Report anything that asks for a code" works better than "stay vigilant".
3. The mechanics on screen: the exact button, add-in or number people will use when they see something suspicious.
4. What happens after a report: who sees it, how quickly, and what the security team does next.
5. One number that shows movement since the last session, such as reporting rate, median time to report, or repeat clicks.

Keep it under ten slides. Threat statistics belong in the deck only when they lead to a decision the audience can make in the room.

Why Security Awareness Matters

Security awareness trainingis a must, not just forcompliance 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 secure behaviour 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.

Security awareness training can significantly increase the rate of incident reporting 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.

Sources

• Gartner G00840741 (2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey, n=65).
• Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, p. 12.

Related reading

• Security awareness training for employees

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