ISO 27001 Information Security Awareness and Training Policy Easy Guide
Information security is a significant concern for all businesses. Security awareness and training programs fulfill an essential role in most organizations’ risk management plans, addressing the potential risks of network access, identifying data classification standards, and remaining vigilant in the face of cyber threats.
Database rights are legal rights that an organization has to take reasonable steps to protect its computer systems and information. Security awareness programs can be anything, including visual presentations, games, intranet sites, and other materials that users must agree with to log into their computer accounts.
Learn why information security awareness and training are essential for your organization.
Why is Information Security Awareness and Training Important?
Any organization that collects, processes, stores, or shares sensitive data must know the consequences of negligent security procedures.
To adequately protect your organization’s sensitive data, it’s essential to follow applicable regulations, raise security awareness, and train your employees. Security Awareness and Training programs are an investment in your long-term success and can help reduce the risks caused by attacks on your organization.
If you want to make your employees more cautious and aware of potential risks, invest in security awareness programs. It will ensure that your organization has the information it needs to mitigate risk while meeting compliance standards.
Organizational Culture Change
Security awareness and training programs are an opportunity to help your organization change its culture around data security. In many organizations, data security has seen as a strictly technical problem:
IT staff members handle security issues, while other employees ignore the topic or believe it’s irrelevant to their daily work. It can create a culture where employees don’t feel comfortable asking questions or raising concerns about data security.
In many cases, employees trying to protect sensitive data don’t know how to report violations or don’t feel comfortable doing so. If your security awareness and training programs help your organization understand the importance of data security, it may also result in organizational culture changes that benefit your security posture.
Network Security Awareness
Network security awareness helps employees understand the risks of using and staying logged in to a virtual private network (VPN) or remote access service.
Network security awareness training allows employees to understand threats to network security and recognize valuable assets. It also trains them in recognizing standard cybersecurity tools and best practices, such as data encryption and remote access.
With a better understanding of the risks associated with network traffic, your employees will be more likely to recognize signs of malicious network activity, avoid risky behavior, and otherwise protect sensitive data.
Computer User Awareness
Computer user awareness is the perfect tool to teach employees how important it is to be vigilant when using computers. It can help them understand their vulnerabilities, recognize valuable data and hardware, and recognize current issues.
Topics like computer security settings and backup methods, as well as understanding online password management practices, can also be included in this training.
Give your employees a better understanding of the risks associated with computer use. They will be more likely to recognize signs of malicious activity, avoid risky behaviors, and otherwise work on protecting sensitive data.
Data Security Awareness
Data security awareness training can help employees understand the potential risks of storing or transmitting sensitive data. It can help employees understand potential threats to data security, identify valuable data, and recognize current threats.
Employees will also be more likely to protect information after having an extensive background on the issues like data classification standards, authentication and password management, encryption, and transfer details.
Information Security Awareness Helps Employees Understand What to Look For
Information security awareness training helps employees understand what to look for when identifying potential threats. It can include malicious websites, improper use of email and other data-transfer protocols, and wrong data storage methods.
Computer users can learn to recognize malicious websites by watching for unique URLs and checking domain registration information.
Email users can learn to spot malicious emails by checking for signs of social engineering, such as odd requests for information or poor grammar.
And data managers can learn to identify malicious data storage practices by checking out for unapproved or unnecessary data transfers or storage. As you gain a better understanding of the signs of malicious activity, your employees will be able to report them more easily.
Network and Data Usage Awareness Helps Employees Identify Risky Behaviors
Network and data usage awareness training can help employees identify risky behaviors, such as using personal devices for work, transferring sensitive data to unauthorized recipients, or storing sensitive data in unauthorized places.
Network and data usage awareness training can help employees identify risks with their digital behavior. Employees who understand what makes data compliant will be able to recognize whether their data transfers comply with organization standards.
Providing safe training for network and data usage is key to staying protected on the internet. Not only will training make employees more aware of the risk and avoid potentially dangerous behaviors, but they’ll also better understand how to protect themselves online.
Computer and Network Usage Training Teaches Employees How to Stay Safe
Computer and network usage training can help employees learn how to stay safe using computers and networks. It can include practical tips for avoiding common security threats, such as avoiding suspicious websites and malicious emails and handling security incidents when they occur.
Training your employees in computer and network usage is crucial to ensure their productivity isn’t interrupted by malicious activities. If a security incident were to arise and the employees were capable of responsibly addressing it, who could prevent the vulnerabilities from happening later on?
Assisting in Disaster Recovery and Computer Recovering
As an employee of any company, it’s best to know how to extract data from storage media and bring up rolled-back systems. It includes knowing how to properly shuttle your data to secondary storage and dealing with issues like interrupts on the grid or file system corruption.
Computer and network usage training will help employees better understand how computers and networks function. It, in turn, can help them prepare for outages and other disruptions, which could minimize the impact of service disruptions on other users.
How to Implement Your ISAT Policy
There are a few ways you can implement your ISAT policy.
You can distribute physical copies of the policy to employees and include them in their onboarding packet.
You can create a digital version of the policy and make it accessible to all employees by including it in your company intranet.
You may even want to add it to your employee handbook if it applies to every employee.
If you’re creating a tool your employees are expected to use, ensure the policy has to be announced in writing, and the rules are underscored.
Know Your Audience
If you don’t know your target audience, you have no way of knowing whether your security program is effective. All your training has designed for a specific type of employee, so you need to know who those people are. Creating a profile of your target audience will also help you tailor your ISAT policy to their specific needs.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when creating profiles of your target audience.
- What jobs do your employees perform?
- What departments do they represent?
- What education do they have?
- What level of experience do they have?
- What cultural considerations do they have?
- What languages do they speak?
- What age group do they fall into?
- What gender makeup do they have?
- What disabilities do they have?
Some of these factors are directly related to information security, while others are more general. The more you can tailor your ISAT program to your audience’s specific needs and limitations, the more effective your program will be.
Pick Your Tools
As you create your ISAT policy, you must decide which tools you want to use. You have a few options when it comes to tools, including an in-house training program, an online training program, or an eLearning program. An in-house training program is probably the best choice for smaller businesses, but larger organizations may need the flexibility of online training or eLearning.
Here are a few things to remember as you decide which tool to use for your ISAT policy.
- How much does each tool cost?
- What is the return on investment?
- What format does each tool use?
- How long does each course take?
- What is the ease of use?
- Does each tool integrate with other systems?
Not every tool is suitable for every organization, but don’t settle for a sub-par training program just because it’s easy. Consider your organization’s needs, and choose a tool that meets those needs.
Define the Frequency of Training Sessions
You have to decide how often your employees need training. The best way to make that decision is to think about how often people forget things. The rule of thumb is to train people as often as they fail. If employees forget something often enough, they stop taking it seriously. You can’t put your organization at risk because someone forgot a single thing.
Here are some guidelines for how often to have training sessions.
- New Employees — New employees need training as soon as possible to get up to speed as quickly as possible. You also want to ensure they know the “right way” to do things right from the start.
- Existing Employees — Existing employees also need training but don’t need it as often. You want to ensure they remember the “right way” to do things, but you don’t want to overwhelm them with new information.
Define the Topics for Each Session
Each training session should cover a specific topic. You should also include the date of the session and a case in your ISAT policy. You can also include links to helpful resources.
Here are some topics you may want to include in your ISAT policy.
- The Basics — All employees should know the basics, including what data is, why it’s valuable, and who owns it. Employees should also understand the different types of data and where it lives in the organization.
- Data Flow — Employees need to know how data moves through the organization. They need to understand the path all data takes, including the way from the time it’s created to the time it’s destroyed. They also need to know how data moves from device to device, whether it moves through the cloud or has stored on a single machine.
- Risk Assessment — Employees need to know how to identify, assess, and mitigate risks to data. They need to understand what types of risk exist and how to identify and measure risk. They also need to know what the risk of inaction is.
Define Penalties for Noncompliance
Employees need to know their responsibilities in the event of non-compliance. Most organizations implement a compliance grading system and a remediation plan in their ISAT policy. Penalties can vary depending on an employee’s position or level of responsibility, but everyone should be aware of the consequences for not meeting the program’s expectations.
You may want to consider the following penalties.
- Reprimand — A simple reprimand might be all that’s needed if an employee misses a single training session.
- Warning — It can use an alert if an employee needs an extra reminder to comply.
- Written Warning — It should use a written warning if an employee refuses to comply.
- Termination — It should only use stop in extreme cases, such as when an employee refuses to comply after receiving multiple warnings.
Conclusion
Security is a continuous process, and all organizations must be vigilant about protecting sensitive data and systems and regularly review and update their security programs. Security awareness and training are essential parts of an organization’s security posture. Through security awareness programs, employees can understand the potential risks of network access, identify data classification standards, and remain vigilant about cyber threats. Investing in security awareness programs can help your organization minimize risk while ensuring employees have the information they need to respond to security incidents.
Ready to Streamline Compliance?
Building a secure foundation for your startup is crucial, but navigating the complexities of achieving compliance can be a hassle, especially for a small team.
SecureSlate offers a simpler solution:
- Affordable: Expensive compliance software shouldn’t be the barrier. Our affordable plans start at just $99/month.
- Focus on Your Business, Not Paperwork: Automate tedious tasks and free up your team to focus on innovation and growth.
- Gain Confidence and Credibility: Our platform guides you through the process, ensuring you meet all essential requirements, giving you peace of mind.
Get Started in Just 3 Minutes
It only takes 3 minutes to sign up and see how our platform can streamline your compliance journey.
