IT Security Awareness Training
Employees may not be the first line of defense, but they are often the most important. With Security Awareness Training from QualityIP, your team learns to recognize threats and act quickly to protect your business.
IT security awareness training is a key part of your organization’s infrastructure. Without proper education, your business remains vulnerable as hackers target untrained users as entry points. QualityIP’s programs give your team the skills to recognize threats, avoid pitfalls, and follow security protocols. By removing human error as a “soft spot,” you strengthen defenses, lower the risk of breaches, and turn employees into an active line of defense against cyber threats.
What Is Security Awareness Training?
IT security training uses several methods to engage employees and teach them about threats they may not recognize. The first step is education, showing staff what threats look like and how to identify bad actors.
Training also covers the proper use of software and hardware, the steps to take during a breach, and why these actions matter for the safety of the organization, staff, and customers.
A strong awareness program includes experiential learning, real-life examples, and policy training. It is not a one-time effort and must be refreshed regularly as new threats appear.
Why Is IT Risk Management Important?
IT security training uses several methods to engage employees and help them recognize threats. The first step is education, where staff learn what the threats are and how to identify them.
Training also teaches employees how to use software and hardware securely and what actions to take when breaches occur. It reinforces why these steps are vital to protect the organization, staff, and customers.
A strong awareness program includes experiential learning, real-life examples, and policy training. It must be reviewed and refreshed regularly as new threats arise.
Do You Need a Security Awareness Program?
The short answer is yes. Security training is vital to a cyber protection program by teaching users how to spot phishing attacks and recognize warning signs. Many small and mid-sized businesses lack training programs, making them attractive targets. Awareness training is worth the investment if it prevents even one breach.
Along with the safeguards provided through our Managed IT Services, QualityIP offers a strong SAT program for employees. Through real-life examples and role-playing scenarios, staff learn how hackers attempt to exploit users, how to identify phishing emails, and the right steps to take next.
Do You Need a Security Awareness Program?
The short answer is yes. Security training is critical to the success of a cyber protection program by showing users how to spot a phishing attack and what signs they should look out for. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often lack employee training programs like SAT, making them an appealing target for hackers. Information technology security awareness training is well worth the cost if it prevents even one security breach.
In addition to the safeguards QualityIP can implement through our Managed IT Services, we offer a robust SAT program for your staff. This program is designed to educate your employees about the most common ways in which hackers try to exploit people to gain access to your sensitive data and accounts. Using a combination of real-life examples and role-playing scenarios, we are able to help employees learn how to spot phishing emails or other hacking attempts, and then know what to do next.
IT Security Training and Testing Process
Ongoing security training and testing will help employees to improve their scores and strengthen their security awareness competency. Our recommendations are simple:
Initial Course: he initial course takes about an hour and provides a baseline of security awareness. Foundational coursework ensures that employees receive consistent security education going forward. This is the education portion of the training where we get everyone on the same page and make sure they have some background knowledge about cyber threats.
Weekly Micro-Training: These “small-bite” training components highlight current threats and keep cybersecurity top of mind. The micro-training and quizzes take less than five minutes a week to complete. By keeping the training sessions short and simple, employees are encouraged to complete them and information is easily retained.
Newsletter Updates: Each month, we email a security newsletter to your employees, to keep them updated on current events in the cybersecurity industry. This serves two purposes: to update employees on new threats and to keep cybersecurity at the forefront of their minds.
Simulated Phishing Testing: We test employee retention of the material with periodic mock phishing campaigns, evaluating the effectiveness of their training and identifying weaknesses.
Ongoing Dark Web Assessment: We search the dark web for compromised employee email accounts by external breaches. Employees have the option to check personal email accounts for exposure on the dark web as well.
Security Training Program Components
An employee security awareness training program from QualityIP includes the following components:
- SAT Portal access for each employee
- SAT Management Portal for managers and IT
- Dark Web Assessment
- Employee Vulnerability Assessment
- Award-winning support from QualityIP
- SAT policy creation and implementation
- Test phishing email setup and deployment
- SAT user onboarding and offboarding
Cybersecurity Training Assessments
Two important evaluations help us assess and identify key areas of security awareness: phishing material availability on the dark web and employee vulnerability. We use these assessments to judge how well training is working for your employees and to adjust future trainings to their needs.
Dark Web Assessment
The dark web is a system of websites visible through networks using hidden IP addresses. Through the dark web, hackers collect, buy, and sell personally identifiable information.
Criminals use this data to phish and scam your employees and even gain access to your organization. There are many ways criminals use the information found on the dark web to gain access to your organization.
Through our cybersecurity awareness training program, you and your employees discover whether emails from your company domain are available on the dark web. The report also indicates the external breach that compromised the account.
We then provide you with the steps you can take to minimize your risk from the exposed email accounts.
Employee Vulnerability Assessment
Next, we perform an Employee Vulnerability Assessment (EVA) to help you determine which employees are at the most significant risk from phishing attempts. The EVA scores each employee between 0 and 800. The higher their score, the better equipped they are to meet the threat that hackers pose to them. You can use the cyber awareness scores to decide which employees need additional training and which employees should be given more or less access to sensitive data.
An anonymous leaderboard adds friendly competition among your staff. The cyber security awareness training scores are also available to the IT administrator and can be used in determining user rights and network access, further protecting your information technology.
Technology alone is not enough for thorough protection.
Start training your team today to recognize risks and defend your business from within.