Designing a Policy for Security Awareness Training (Including a Template)

  • What Constitutes a Policy for
    Security Awareness Training?
  • What is the objective of a
    Security Awareness Training
    Policy?
  • What makes a Security
    Awareness Training Policy
    significant?
  • Crafting a Security Awareness
    Training Policy in Five Steps:
  • What Policies Should
    Accompany A Security
    Awareness Training Policy?

What Constitutes a Policy for Security Awareness Training?

A security awareness training (SAT) policy serves as a structured document outlining guidelines for educating and empowering an organization’s employees to comprehend, identify, and adeptly handle information security threats.

These policies should harmonize with the broader information security strategy and cater to the specific regulatory, compliance, and educational requirements of the organization.

What is the objective of a Security Awareness Training Policy?

The purpose of a security awareness training policy is to establish a uniform educational standard throughout an organization’s staff concerning information security. Specifically, these policies are utilized by organizations to:

1. Mitigate risk by instructing employees on identifying and addressing prevalent cybersecurity risks.
2. Guarantee compliance with regulatory and cybersecurity standards, which stipulate minimal training prerequisites depending on employee roles and data handling.
3. Empower employees by cultivating a culture that emphasizes security and incorporates it into all operational facets.
4. Improve the reputation and trustworthiness of the organization among its customers, partners, and stakeholders.

What makes a Security Awareness Training Policy significant?

The significance of Security Awareness Training Policies lies in their role in mitigating cyber risks and fulfilling the mandates of regulatory and widely accepted cybersecurity frameworks.

Acknowledging the importance of SAT policies is crucial. They establish criteria for success, delineate the educational requirements for employees, and highlight the overarching advantages to an organization from deploying a security awareness training initiative.

Through the creation, periodic review, and strict adherence to an SAT policy, organizations can ensure the deployment of effective tools and procedures that optimize advantages while minimizing both human and financial expenditures.

Crafting a Security Awareness Training Policy in Five Steps:

Developing a security awareness training policy entails delineating the purpose, scope, objectives, and individual educational requisites tailored to employees’ roles and data handling responsibilities within your organization. Each aspect must be customized to your organization’s specific needs. In the forthcoming steps, we’ll delineate how to achieve this.

Step 1: Clarify the specific needs and demands of your organization.

Certainly, every organization possesses its own distinct characteristics and necessities. Before drafting a policy, it’s imperative to take into account various factors unique to your organization, including:

1. Organization Size: Small businesses face distinct threats compared to larger enterprises, often due to employees juggling multiple roles, potentially exposing vulnerabilities to cyber threats.

2. Industry: Industries operate under different paradigms; for instance, healthcare places greater emphasis on customer data security and privacy compared to sectors like retail or agriculture.

3. Geographic Location: The location of your organization can influence the types of tools, applications, or services utilized, impacting training material selection.

4. Spoken Language: Organizations with multilingual staff must ensure training materials cater to linguistic diversity to provide suitable education for all employees.

5. Regulatory Requirements: Compliance with specific regulations may necessitate training in particular formats or on specific topics.

6. Compliance Standards: Apart from regulatory mandates, adherence to cybersecurity compliance standards may impose additional training requisites.

7. Security Culture: The desired security culture of your organization guides the implementation of various training activities and engagement methods, such as phishing simulations, gamification, and risk profiling.

Step 2: Sketch out the training activities to be undertaken.

Based on the unique needs of your organization, a range of training activities may be necessary to effectively enhance security awareness among employees. Here’s an outline of some common training activities:

1. New Employee Training: Upon joining the organization, new employees should undergo training to meet the organizational security knowledge baseline. This training should cover essential information and cybersecurity principles, ensuring that new hires understand their role in maintaining security.

2. General Employee Training: All employees, regardless of their roles, should receive comprehensive training on essential security topics. This training establishes a baseline of knowledge and equips employees with the skills to recognize and respond to common threats. Topics may include phishing awareness, cyber security fundamentals, ransomware awareness, remote working best practices, physical security guidelines, situational awareness, and defense-in-depth strategies.

3. Specialty Employee Training: Certain roles within the organization may require specialized security training tailored to their responsibilities. For example, employees handling credit card information may need training on compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), while IT administrators may require training on advanced security practices and incident response. Similarly, software developers may benefit from training on secure coding practices and vulnerability assessment.

4. Simulated Phishing Activities: Supplementing traditional training with simulated phishing exercises can provide valuable insights into employees’ awareness levels and their ability to recognize phishing attempts. These simulations help reinforce theoretical knowledge and promote practical situational awareness. It’s advisable to prioritize higher-risk employees for these simulations to ensure targeted training where needed.

By incorporating these training activities into your security awareness training policy, you can create a comprehensive program that addresses the specific needs of your organization and enhances overall security posture.

Step 3: Clarify employee obligations and compliance with the training program.

For a policy to be effective, it relies on adherence. Without enforcement, policies lose relevance, eroding potential benefits.

Employees are obligated to fulfill all aspects of security awareness training policies. Non-compliance actions and penalties for repeated offenses must be clearly defined.

Employee compliance expectations should be outlined as a separate section within the security awareness training policy.

Step 4: Specify Engagement Techniques

To enhance employee engagement, the following techniques should be incorporated into the security awareness training policy:

1. Gamification: Implement a badge-based gamification system to incentivize positive cyber behaviors. Employees earn badges for adhering to security protocols and may face penalties for violations. This approach aims to make training more engaging and instill a culture of shared responsibility for cybersecurity.

2. Security Intelligence Profiling: Utilize a profiling system to assess employees’ cybersecurity skills and categorize them into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. This segmentation enables tailored training assignments that match each employee’s learning needs and capabilities.

3. Risk Profiling: Implement a risk-based profiling system to evaluate employees’ susceptibility to phishing attacks. By assessing individual risk levels, training exercises can be customized to address specific vulnerabilities and mitigate potential threats effectively.

Step 5: Specify the duties and accountabilities of employees regarding security awareness training.

Lastly, it’s essential to delineate the roles and responsibilities of individuals tasked with adhering to and enforcing the security awareness training policy. These key parties are vital for ensuring the policy’s effectiveness:

1. Information Security Team:
The Information Security Team holds primary responsibility for the success of the security awareness training program. They oversee its implementation, monitor compliance, and continuously assess its effectiveness.

2. People Managers:
People Managers, including supervisors and team leaders, play a crucial role in fostering a cybersecurity culture within their teams. They are responsible for promoting compliance with the training program among their direct reports, offering support and guidance as needed, and setting a positive example for their team members.

3. All Employees:
Every employee, contractor, or third-party personnel bears responsibility for maintaining compliance with the requirements outlined in the security awareness training program. They must actively engage with the training materials, apply the knowledge gained to their daily activities, and remain vigilant against potential security threats.

What complementary policies should accompany a Security Awareness Training Policy?

A Security Awareness Training Policy should be part of a comprehensive suite of information security policies. Here are some other policies that should accompany it:

1. Access Control Policy: Establishes rules for managing access to resources and permissions within the organization.
2. Asset Management Policy: Defines procedures for managing the organization’s assets throughout their lifecycle.
3. Business Continuity Plan: Outlines strategies and procedures for maintaining essential functions during and after disruptions.
4. Change Management Policy: Provides guidelines for managing changes to IT systems and processes.
5. Code of Conduct: Sets expectations for ethical behavior and professional conduct.
6. Data Classification, Handling, and Retention Policy: Defines procedures for classifying, handling, and retaining data based on its sensitivity.
7. Disaster Recovery Plan: Details steps for quickly resuming business operations after a catastrophic event.
8. Incident Management Policy: Establishes procedures for identifying, analyzing, and managing incidents affecting IT infrastructure.
9. Incident Response Plans: Provides a detailed plan for responding to security incidents.
10. Information Security Governance Framework: Defines the structure and processes for ensuring information security aligns with organizational objectives.
11. Information Security Policy: Sets the overall approach to information security, including principles and procedures.
12. Network Security Policy: Establishes rules and guidelines for securing computer networks against cyber threats.
13. Risk Management Framework: Defines the process for identifying, assessing, and addressing risks to information assets.
14. Vendor Governance Framework: Outlines processes for selecting, managing, and monitoring third-party vendors.
15. Vulnerability Management Program: Establishes procedures for identifying, evaluating, and mitigating vulnerabilities in systems and software.

Creating these policies may seem daunting, but there are many online resources available to help.