What to Look for When Evaluating a Security Awareness Training Solution

Businesses are under siege by a never-ending barrage of cyberattacks, and the situation is only growing worse. They need all hands on deck to prevent expensive security disasters like a data breach or a ransomware incident. Unfortunately, many employees are unable to recognize security threats on their own, making security awareness training a necessity. So what should you be looking for when considering your options for a security awareness training solution? These pointers can help you choose the right one.

What to Look for When You’re Evaluating Solutions

When you’re evaluating training solutions, the answers to these questions should be the deciding factor to help you find the perfect fit.

Does it provide security awareness training, phishing simulation training, or both?

Make sure the solution that you choose can really get the job done by ensuring it offers the training that you need.

• Security training – Lessons about the major security threats and security-related topics your users are likely to face.
• Compliance training – Lessons about the compliance requirements employees must meet to comply with relevant policies and regulations.
• Phishing simulations – Exercises in which simulated phishing messages are sent to employees and their actions around those messages are measured to determine what tricks employees are likely to fall for as well as who need education about phishing. Employees who train using simulations retain 11% more knowledge.

Is the content high quality and timely?

A good solution offers trustworthy, well-made, and relevant content. If your organization is multinational, it’s also important to find a solution with options for training in multiple languages. It’s essential that a solution’s content library is updated regularly to ensure that users are getting the training they need. A well-stocked training library will feature a wide variety of topics including these must-haves:

• Password safety
• Phishing
• Ransomware
• Regulatory compliance
• Data handling best practices

What phishing simulation customization options does the solution offer?

Customization is a valuable feature in phishing simulations because it enables you to do two important things:

1. Improve the effectiveness of training with phishing simulations that reflect the unique threats employees in your organization face.
2. Increase the believability of your fake phishing messages by making them appear to come from a trusted source.

When assessing a solution’s customization options, be sure that it offers:

• The ability to modify current phishing simulation emails to tweak them to your needs
• A blank template to create custom phishing emails from scratch
• The option to use your organization’s domain to send out simulated phishing messages

Does the solution offer flexibility in training campaign setup?

Training isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition, and a comprehensive security and compliance awareness training solution is designed with that in mind. A truly flexible solution will offer you the ability to:

• Create custom employee training groups and assign different training paths to each group based on their needs and the threats they’re most likely to encounter
• Stagger phishing simulation emails to be sent at random times to prevent employees from alerting each other
• Schedule training session invitations to be sent automatically weeks or months in advance
• Clone, copy or modify previous campaigns to avoid creating new ones from scratch

Can the solution also serve as a learning management platform for other types of training your organization needs?

Security and compliance education isn’t the only training employees need. Look for a training solution that can be used in multiple ways for maximum value. If a solution can also be used for other training that you upload, like new employee onboarding, sexual harassment training, or business process education, it’s a winner.

Is the solution convenient for employees and IT personnel to use?

Training that is a hassle isn’t beneficial to anyone. Make the training process a snap for employees by choosing a solution that delivers each employee’s training through a personalized portal accessible anytime, anywhere. That makes it easy for employees to access the training they’ve been assigned and keep track of the courses they’ve completed.

Don’t forget about productivity features that will make training less burdensome for the IT team, too. Choose a solution that auto-syncs with your employee directory to make setting up training groups easy and eliminates manual updates when staff changes occur.

Does the solution test employee knowledge retention after taking the training?

For a training program to be effective you need performance data. A testing feature is essential in a training solution. A post-training online test that’s instantly scored is ideal. Employees who take quizzes after their training sessions retain 26% more knowledge than employees who do not take a test.

Make sure the testing feature includes the ability to set parameters like the passing score for each lesson and the number of times an employee can attempt to pass the test before they fail the course.

Does the solution provide an ability to track training results, both in progress and final?

It’s impossible to demonstrate the value of training without the right tools to measure performance. Look for a solution that offers a robust array of tools to track, measure, and report on your training program’s accomplishments including:

• A dashboard to track progress in real-time
• Customizable reporting
• Visually engaging, easy-to-understand reports to share with the stakeholders
• The ability to automate report generation and delivery to stakeholders
• Summary reports at the end of every campaign that show training course results, such as who didn’t take the training, who started but didn’t complete the training, who completed the training, and how employees scored on tests
• Phishing simulation results include which simulated malicious messages were most effective, who didn’t take any action, who opened the email, who clicked on the link in the email, and who submitted their credentials on the fake phishing landing page

Source: ID Agent