Cyber awareness training: effects after a short time
The Awareness PLUS cybersecurity training programme teaches amateurs and professionals alike how to deal with the risks of the internet. ‘Hagel IT’ from Hamburg is already using it with several medium-sized customers and is sharing its initial findings.
Philip Kraatz is Head of Sales at Hagel IT, a system house based in Hamburg with over 35 employees. He is used to convincing his corporate customers and building up basic knowledge about important IT security products. With Awareness PLUS from Securepoint, the experienced salesman experiences something different.
His counterparts, he notes, are very quick to recognise the benefits of the offer. ‘Everyone is familiar with spam and phishing,’ says Kraatz. ‘My example is always the fake email from the management with the order to carry out a transfer at short notice. You quickly understand the purpose of the training.’ Awareness PLUS uses interactive training and simulations to recreate such everyday situations when using the internet, thus sensitising users to the dangers of surfing or receiving emails.
Philip Kraatz knows from a case in his professional environment that companies that fall victim to a phishing attack suffer in multiple ways and in the long term. ‘We know companies that have fallen for phishing and where end customer data was also affected. That was bad. The offence was of course reported and there was a lot of coordination required with the authorities. Several company accounts had to be shut down and the compromised hardware was confiscated for investigation purposes. But the worst damage was to the company's reputation.’
Train the right behaviour
This experience was also at the back of Philip Kraatz's mind when he set out to find a phishing simulation training course. ‘There are two really dangerous types of behaviour when dealing with cyberattacks,’ says Kraatz. ‘One is naivety, i.e. a lack of caution due to ignorance. The other is arrogance, when someone thinks they can recognise cyberattacks at first glance.’
Securepoint Awareness PLUS offers the right training framework for both extremes - and everything in between. Anyone who reacts to the fake attacks receives direct feedback on their actions via an e-learning platform and learns what the correct behaviour would have been. Philip Kraatz tested the training himself and is convinced: ‘The simulation in combination with the direct feedback has a strong training effect.’
In addition to the immediate confrontation with one's own behaviour, it is the multimedia, modular online learning environment that ensures real learning success in a playful way. For Philip Kraatz, another advantage of training with Awareness PLUS is the ability to customise his own training. ‘Instead of half a day's training with staff absence, we have continuous ‘micro training’. This is much easier for most companies to implement.’
Data protection-compliant analyses
Several Hagel IT customers are already working with Securepoint's security training. The simple set-up and use also make it possible to quickly convince sceptical contacts. ‘The most common argument against the need for training is: we don't need it, our people are already well versed in the subject,’ explains Sales Manager Kraatz. ‘But when the system is then tested, there are always double-digit click rates.’
The second aspect that is sometimes scrutinised critically by end customers is data protection. ‘There is always the question of the analysis options. If it is clear that individual users are not being analysed, the concerns are quickly resolved.’ The training platform's comprehensive reports provide a meaningful overview of the company's defence readiness and the team's learning success. The assessment of individual persons is excluded and the protection of individual data in accordance with the GDPR is guaranteed.
Cybersecurity training with an impact
In the six months since the introduction of Awareness PLUS, Hagel IT has provided training for around 140 people on the customer side. Successes have already been achieved in this short time. Philip Kraatz summarises: ‘People are more aware of the topic. They are now talking to each other and dealing with danger in a different way. Suspicious emails are no longer forwarded directly, for example, but as a screenshot so that the recipient is not accidentally jeopardised.’
Establishing a genuine security culture can effectively protect companies from damage caused by malware, ransomware or social engineering in the long term. Paying attention when dealing with web-based applications is an important step in this direction.
IT security solution and specialised trade partner
hagel IT-Services GmbH
Süderstraße 232
20537 Hamburg
Phone: 040 / 284 10 26 - 0
Mail: info@hagel-it.de
Web: https://www.hagel-it.de/