Security Awareness Training is Broken. Human Risk Management (HRM) is the Fix

Humans are an organization's strongest defence against evolving cyber threats, but security awareness training alone often isn't enough to transform user behaviour.

In this guide, usecure looks at why Human Risk Management (HRM) is the new fix for building a security-savvy workforce.

Don't be fooled...

Businesses are investing more than ever into strengthening their employee security awareness efforts, but a big problem still plagues SMBs and enterprises in every sector — human-related data breaches.

Even with more businesses rolling out staff security awareness training programs to combat evolving cyber threats, over 90% of data breaches still stem from human error.

So, why are human-related data breaches still so prevalent?

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Security awareness training often isn't enough

It's easy to think that rolling out some security awareness courses and sending a few email bulletins from time to time can stop staff from engaging with phishing emails or re-using awful passwords. But, as many businesses are finding out, security awareness training alone often isn't enough to truly boost user resilience and drive secure human behaviour.

Here's why:

The training isn't always fit for purpose - Countless programs are created through a rushed recipe for failure — e.g., infrequent, unengaging, and generic training courses being chucked out, with the hope that employees won't click that next phishing email and that the necessary compliance boxes are checked. Training courses are wrongly seen as a silver bullet - Regular training is vital for helping employees strengthen their security behaviour, but computer-based courses are just one tool for tackling human cyber risk. Staff needs to know their responsibilities through refined policy communications, and practical risk assessments — like phishing simulations and dark web breach scans — need to be conducted regularly to keep staff resilient to modern threats. Training results aren't truly reflecting the human risk - Many user training programs fail to give businesses a true reflection of their ongoing human cyber risk and, instead, rely solely on security awareness training grades and (maybe) the results of sporadic phishing simulations as a way of assessing their security posture. This doesn't paint a full picture of human risk, and, often, measuring the overall impact of training is difficult to measure accurately.

So, how can businesses understand, tackle, and monitor their human cyber risk better?

Access Now: Security Awareness Training is Broken. HRM is the Fix [Free eBook] →

Introducing Human Risk Management (HRM) - usecure's new class of user-focused security

Human Risk Management (HRM) empowers IT pros and managed service providers to measure, mitigate and monitor ongoing human cyber risk without hindering the productivity of the workforce.

usecure simplifies HRM by automating user-tailored security awareness training, periodic phishing simulations, simplified policy management, and ongoing dark web breach monitoring — with continuous human risk scoring clearly showcasing the impact on risk over time.

Take a look at usecure's free guide to learn more about why traditional security awareness training often falls flat, and how to start driving secure user behaviour through automated Human Risk Management (HRM).

Access Now: Security Awareness Training is Broken. HRM is the Fix [Free eBook] →

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