Cyber awareness training: How to improve your cyber resilience with a few clicks

The human element is still a crucial component of business cyber defense.

Whether it is regular employees browsing the Internet, IT staff members logging into their accounts, or managers opening their emails, the human element is the prevalent component of most data breaches. After all, why would cybercriminals go the extra mile to create a complicated zero-click attack if they can more easily trick their targets into giving their credentials away, or into downloading malicious content?  

While the human element is an immensely exploited attack vector, it is also quite easy to mitigate — with cybersecurity awareness training. For relatively low effort, it can bring a great payoff by re-focusing business security into a prevention-first approach.

ESET’s mission is to provide proactive defense to businesses all around the world, help them minimize the attack surface, prevent breaches, and stop attackers before they can do any harm. That is why ESET has been offering free Cybersecurity Awareness Training for several years, so anyone can learn more about the threats out there.

Consider it a valuable starter pack that is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as IT admins who seek easy-to-implement learning content that will have an immediate, proactive effect.

TRY FREE ONLINE ESET CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS TRAINING NOW!

Human — The most vulnerable security element

According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, 68% of breaches involved a non-malicious human element, like a person falling victim to a social engineering attack or making an error.

The majority of those attacks started with phishing and pretexting (use of a fabricated story, or pretext, to gain a victim's trust) via email, accounting for 73% of breaches.

Phishing attacks happen fast. The same report shows that the median time to click on a malicious link after the email is opened is 21 seconds, and then it takes only another 28 seconds to enter the data. This means the median time for users to fall for phishing emails is less than a minute.

However, human error is not the only problem. IT professionals can also make some of the most common mistakes as well, as half of them admitted in a Ponemon Institute 2020 study to reusing the same password across multiple logins.

Smaller businesses lack cyber training

A 2024 survey conducted by the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation & Technology shows that micro businesses (up to 10 employees), small businesses (10-49 employees), and medium businesses (50-249 employees) are less eager to invest in employee training.

Only 14% of surveyed micro businesses, 30% of small businesses, and 52% of medium businesses conducted awareness training, in comparison with 74% of large businesses.

Moreover, a year earlier, the same department found that SMBs also often lack properly trained senior managers.

A key factor in reducing breach costs

While many businesses hesitate to deploy cybersecurity awareness training, it is important to know that training programs can save a lot of money. 

Considering that an average breach cost reaches USD 4.88 million, cybersecurity training decreases this number by more than USD 258,000, according to the Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 from IBM and Ponemon Institute.

Together with AI, cybersecurity training is the most effective tool for decreasing data breach costs, according to the report.

ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training

For those looking for a way to proactively prevent their cyber budgets from excessively bloating due to incidents and breaches, check out the ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training, which offers an engaging, story-driven experience designed to make learning both interactive and impactful.

Users can explore 19 essential cybersecurity topics, such as social engineering, password hygiene, securing remote devices, malware threats, and much more.

It is very simple to use. After registration, users receive a message sending them directly to the landing page, and they get an email with a shareable link for the training. Completing the whole course takes 60 minutes, and users can check what they have learned in the final quiz.

Description: The interface of ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training.

To make this free basic training even more effective, incorporate it into a bigger, complex awareness program for your company. Here are a few tips to follow:

Draw employees’ attention — When training employees, utilize the multiple entertaining methods and formats of the ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training to draw their attention.

Organize phishing simulations — If your company’s resources allow it, test employees’ vigilance with phishing simulations from time to time. It will measure the effectiveness of your cybersecurity awareness program and make employees more cautious.

Make it a long-term process — Cybersecurity awareness training doesn’t end with one session; it should be a long-term process involving repeated training and phishing simulations that reflect current trends in a current threat landscape. Also, make cybersecurity awareness a part of the company’s culture to avoid a sense that awareness training is just a necessary evil.

Be positive — Available research shows that using fear tactics is not effective for long-term behavioral change and may even backfire, as many employees see this approach as unethical. 

Anything is better than nothing

A systematic review of 142 studies found that most papers reported positive effects of training, regardless of the cybersecurity topic or training method.

Cybersecurity training can be a simple way to vastly increase a company’s cyber potential. What’s more, it leads to a proactive posture, preventing threats from compromising businesses in the first place.

So grab this opportunity, and enjoy great results achieved with little effort!