What is Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training is an educational process designed to enhance the security consciousness of an organization's workforce. This training covers various topics, including cybersecurity, information security, and various practices to safeguard sensitive data.

The main goal of security awareness training is to teach employees how to identify and reduce security risks. Training includes spotting phishing, using strong passwords, and detecting security breaches.

Employees who participate in security awareness and training improve their ability to handle confidential information and become more responsible.

What is the Purpose of Security Awareness Training?

Security awareness training is important for any organization's cybersecurity strategy. The main purpose of security awareness training is to teach employees how to recognize and prevent security threats. By teaching them about different types of cyber threats, such as phishing, spear phishing, malware, ransomware, and social engineering, the training aims to reduce the risk of security breaches. This is especially important as human error is often the weakest link in security defenses.

Security awareness training teaches employees how to identify and report suspicious activity and protect company data. It also creates a culture of security within the organization. Regular updates and continuous education help employees stay vigilant and proactive.

This process mitigates risks like social engineering and adapts to the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats. As regulations get stricter, a well-informed workforce helps the organization keep its legal and ethical obligations and protect its assets and reputation from cyber-attacks.

To understand the challenges organizations face when implementing security awareness training, check out the key insights from the Gartner Cybersecurity Awareness Survey.

For a deeper understanding of Security Awareness Training—how it empowers employees to spot real threats, click wisely, and respond effectively—check out the Keepnet podcast series below:

Why is Security Awareness Training Important for Employees?

Employees must be aware of the importance of cyber security awareness training. Verizon's 2022 Data Breach Investigation Report states that human errors cause 82% of data breaches.

Employees are frequently the first line of defense against cyber attacks. Teaching them about security makes them aware of dangers and helps them understand how their actions affect security. It helps create a security culture within the company, where each employee protects sensitive information. A well-trained workforce must meet these requirements and avoid potential legal and financial penalties.

Security threats vary across industries and job functions. Explore how security awareness training is tailored for different roles in our guides below:

• Security Awareness Training for Executives – Learn how top leaders can defend against targeted phishing, social engineering, and CEO fraud.
• Security Awareness Training for Legal Professionals – Discover how law firms can protect client data and prevent document fraud.
• Security Awareness Training for Finance Roles – Understand the risks of BEC scams, invoice fraud, and deepfake attacks on finance teams.
• Security Awareness Training for People with Disabilities – Explore inclusive security awareness strategies that empower employees with disabilities.

Benefits for Individuals

• Learn About Online Dangers and How to Stay Safe: This training makes it easier to understand different online cyber threats. It helps people know how to spot and stay away from cyber threats.
• Build Safe Online Habits: Just like we keep ourselves clean for good health, learning how to be safe online keeps our digital world secure. This training teaches important safety habits to use all the time.
• Know Why It's Important: Through this training, people see the real value of being careful online. They learn how it can greatly lower the risk of falling for social engineering scams and other cyber threats, keeping them safer from cyber threats.

Benefits for Organizations

• Make Your Company's Security Stronger: Having employees who know about cyber security threats is like having a strong first line of defense. With security training, your organization can make its defenses even stronger and build a tough security culture to prevent cyber threats.
• Lower the Chance of Losing Data: A big plus of training everyone about cybersecurity is that it can really cut down on the chance of data breaches. Employees who know what to look for can stop threats before they get serious.
• Help Your Team Feel More Confident with Security: Being sure of themselves helps a lot. Employees who get training feel more capable of dealing with, reporting, and stopping cyber threats. This encourages everyone to be more active in keeping the organization safe.

Benefits for IT Admins

Security awareness training isn't just an extra task for IT administrators; it's a critical part of their toolkit for protecting the organization's digital assets. In today's rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, IT administrators are the guardians of their organization's cybersecurity framework.

Here are the benefits for IT admins that show why their participation in security awareness training is critical:

• Proactive Threat Detection: IT administrators who stay up-to-date on the latest cybersecurity trends and attack methods through ongoing training are better equipped to identify and stop cyber threats organizations face before they escalate into breaches.
• Minimizing Human Error: Since many cybersecurity incidents are due to human error, educated IT administrators can implement more effective strategies to reduce these risks and promote a more secure IT environment.
• Enhanced Incident Response: When IT admins are trained in security awareness, their ability to respond swiftly and efficiently to security incidents significantly improves, minimizing potential damage.
• Maintaining Compliance Requirements: With regulations and standards constantly evolving, IT admins need to stay informed to ensure that the organization remains compliant, avoiding hefty fines and reputational damage.

How to Increase Security Awareness in a Company?

Increasing security awareness in a company involves a multi-faceted approach. Keeping regular cyber security training up-to-date with the latest threats and best practices is crucial. All employees must do this program, and those in important or risky roles need extra training on information security. Interactive training methods, such as workshops, simulations, and quizzes, can more effectively engage employees and reinforce learning.

Please look at the steps below and see best practices to increase awareness in your organization.

• Update mandatory security training regularly for all employees, with extra focus on high-risk roles.
• Use interactive methods like workshops and simulations to enhance engagement.
• Perform frequent phishing tests to improve threat recognition.
• Communicate regularly about security updates and practices.
• Promote a culture of open reporting for security issues.
• Involve leadership in security awareness activities.
• Customize security training for specific departmental needs.
• Incorporate real world examples in security awareness and training for practical insights.
• Continually update security policies and ensure employee awareness.
• Assess cyber security training effectiveness with surveys and behavior observation.

3 Best Practices for Security Awareness Training

Security awareness training holds immense importance. With the increase in cyber threats, organizations must implement effective cybersecurity awareness training.

Let's explore three essential best practices for creating an impactful security awareness training program.

• Continuous and Regular Security Training: Security threats evolve rapidly. So, it's crucial that information security awareness training is not a one-time event. Employees learn the latest threats and security practices with regular updates and security awareness training sessions.
• Engaging and Relevant Awareness Content: Use interactive content like simulations, games, and real-life case studies. Tailor the content to be relevant to your specific industry and the particular roles of your employees.
• Testing and Feedback: Implement assessments to test employee knowledge and retention. Regular feedback and constructive critique help employees understand their weaknesses and how they can improve.

Importance of Security Awareness Training

Security awareness training is important for protecting your organization from phishing attacks and other cyber threats. By educating your employees and reinforcing good security practices, you can significantly reduce your organization’s risk. For example, companies that invest in awareness training can accomplish the followings in a year:

• Save thousands in incident response time: With training, the average time to respond to a phishing incident drops from 6 hours to just 2 minutes, saving the company both time and money.
• Reduce the cost of phishing incidents: Proper training reduces the cost of handling a phishing incident from $360 to as little as $2.
• Prevent large financial losses: By preventing successful phishing attempts, companies can avoid potential financial losses of up to avarage $500,00 annually.
• Improve employee phishing recognition: With continuous training, companies have reported a 99% increase in employee awareness, meaning employees are far better at identifying and reporting phishing attacks.
• Boost productivity: Automated training and streamlined incident handling can help reduce disruptions and keep operations running smoothly.

These results demonstrate the operational and strategic benefits of an effective cybersecurity awareness training program. By training employees regularly, businesses can not only protect themselves from cyberattacks but also create a stronger, security-conscious culture.

Key operational results include educating thousands of employees, achieving a 99% success rate in phishing identification, and building a robust security culture. On the strategic side, businesses have saved money, ensured compliance, and implemented stronger cybersecurity measures. Read Koton’s Winning Strategy Against Phishing.

When security awareness becomes a part of your company culture, the benefits speak for themselves!

Key operational results include educating thousands of employees, achieving a 99% success rate in phishing identification, and building a robust security culture. On the strategic side, businesses have saved money, ensured compliance, and implemented stronger cybersecurity measures. Read Koton’s Winning Strategy Against Phishing.

When security awareness becomes a part of your company culture, the benefits speak for themselves!

Why You Should Try Keepnet Security Awareness Training?

Keepnet's security awareness training program stands out for its behavior science-based approach to cybersecurity education. By choosing Keepnet, customers get access to up-to-date training materials on security threats and best practices.

Please see the list of benefits to get the answer to why you should try Keepnet security awareness training:

Unified Social Engineering Simulation Tools

The platform offers various types of social engineering simulation tools. These include MFA Phishing, Email (Phishing), Voice Phishing (Vishing), QR code (Quishing), SMS Phishing (Smishing), and Callback Phishing simulations. These simulators cover all aspects of social engineering phishing threats. One platform unifies all products, streamlining the process for enhanced ease and effectiveness in cybersecurity training.

Strengthened Data Protection and Privacy

Making sure your organization's information is safe is important. A study by the Tessian and Ponemon Institute found that approximately 60% of organizations experienced data loss or exfiltration due to employee mistakes on email within a 12-month period. The right kind of training can greatly lower these issues, keeping organization data safe and private.

Reduced Risk of Data Breaches and Financial Loss

Data breaches can cost thousands of dollars or even millions. According to a report by IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2021 was $4.24 million. With good cybersecurity training, security officers can prepare their employees to spot and stop cyber threats. This lowers the chances of getting hit by these expensive data breaches.

Enhanced Reputation and Trust Among Stakeholders

In business, brand reputation is very important. A study in 2020 found that 46% of people are more likely to trust companies that take cybersecurity seriously. When companies show they care about protecting their data by offering cybersecurity training, they gain more trust from everyone involved. This trust builds better relationships with customers, investors, and business partners. Writing a business proposal that highlights your security practices can further strengthen this trust and present your company as a reliable and forward-thinking partner.

How Keepnet Provide Information Security Awareness Training?

Keepnet provides effective security awareness training that trains employees with the knowledge to identify and mitigate cybersecurity threats. Through engaging and interactive training modules, along with realistic phishing simulation tools, Keepnet prepares employees to handle potential security breaches effectively. This proactive approach to cybersecurity training ensures that organizations can fortify their defenses against an ever-evolving threat landscape.

Let's explore why Keepnet security awareness training could be an excellent choice for your organization's cybersecurity training needs.

• Comprehensive and Customizable Training Modules: Keepnet offers extensive training modules. Security professionals can use each security training tailored to your organization's unique requirements. This customization ensures the training is directly relevant to your security concerns and business context.
• Interactive Learning Tools: Keepnet enhances the learning experience by incorporating interactive tools, including simulations and gamified learning experiences. This approach engages employees and facilitates better understanding and retention of cybersecurity concepts.
• Real-Time Reporting and Analytics: Keepnet's platform provides real-time analytics and reporting capabilities, offering valuable insights into employees' training progress and performance. This feature enables organizations to track improvements and identify areas needing further attention, thus continually enhancing their security posture.
• Phishing Simulation Tests: Keepnet's comprehensive phishing simulation tests provide employees with practical experience identifying phishing attacks. These simulations include Email Phishing, Voice Phishing, SMS Phishing, QR Code Phishing, MFA Phishing, and Callback Phishing scenarios. This diverse range of simulations tests and trains employees against various phishing tactics they might encounter.
• Regular Content Updates: Keepnet regularly updates its security awareness and training content to keep pace with the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape. This ensures that the training materials reflect current threats and trends. Keep your organization's defenses sharp and up-to-date.
• Security Training Automation Based on Incorrect Behavior: Keepnet's platform automates security training by assigning modules to employees based on their behavior. The system automatically directs employees who interact incorrectly with a simulated phishing attempt or other security test to relevant training. This targeted approach ensures continuous learning and adaptation to security needs.
• Strong Customer Support: Known for its robust customer support, Keepnet assists organizations in effectively implementing and managing their security awareness training programs. This support ranges from initial setup and customization to ongoing assistance and troubleshooting, ensuring a smooth and effective employee security awareness training experience.

The importance of security awareness training cannot be overstated. So, Keepnet's approach to providing this training adeptly equips employees to confront and manage cyber threats. Through its comprehensive training programs, Keepnet notably enhances an organization's security awareness program, fortifying its defense against cyber risks.

Watch Keepnet's security training on YouTube to see how you can raise awareness and create a security culture among your employees.

Editor's note: This article was updated on April 4, 2025.