Security awareness training (SAT) is a cybersecurity program that teaches employees how to recognize, avoid, and report cyber threats such as phishing emails, malicious links, and social engineering attacks. Its goal is to reduce human error, which is involved in the vast majority of cybersecurity breaches.
Why are humans the biggest cybersecurity risk?
Humans are the biggest cybersecurity risk because attackers exploit natural behaviors like trust, curiosity, fear, and urgency.
While IT and cybersecurity teams can implement tools and best practices into place to reduce risk, they can not control human behaviormaking humans a primary target for social engineering attacks that bypass technical defenses.
What is social engineering in cybersecurity?
Social engineering is a cyberattack technique that manipulates people into revealing information or taking unsafe actions. Common examples include phishing emails, fake login pages, and messages that impersonate executives, coworkers, or trusted brands.
Why can’t technology alone stop phishing and social engineering?
Technology can block many threats, but it can’t prevent an employee from clicking a malicious link or sharing credentials. Knowing this, attackers often target human behavior to gain access to client environments. That’s why training the human layer is essential.
How does security awareness training reduce cyber risk?
Security awareness training reduces cyber risk by teaching employees how to recognize threats, reinforcing safe online behaviors, encouraging fast reporting of suspicious activity, and turning mistakes into learning opportunities that prevent repeat incidents.
Why isn’t traditional security awareness training effective?
Traditional security awareness training often focuses on compliance metrics like hours completed rather than real behavior change. This leads to disengaged employees, repeated mistakes, and little insight into why risky actions occur.
What makes modern security awareness training different?
Modern security awareness training focuses on behavior change through gamified and interactive content, adaptive phishing simulations, automated coaching, and immediate feedback that helps employees learn from real actions instead of feeling punished.
How does Field Effect deliver security awareness training?
Field Effect delivers security awareness training (SAT) in partnership with Beauceron Security, integrating SAT directly with Field Effect MDR so organizations can manage both human and technical cyber risk from a single platform.
What is reel-time remediation?
Reel-time remediation is Beauceron’s automated coaching approach that assigns targeted training immediately after a risky action, such as clicking a phishing link.
It explains the emotional or psychological triggers behind the action and teaches employees how to avoid similar attacks in the future.
How do phishing simulations help improve security?
Phishing simulations help improve security by safely exposing employees to realistic attack scenarios. As employees become more skilled at recognizing signs of attack, the simulations can automatically increase in difficulty, strengthening long-term resilience against real-world threats.
What is real-time email analysis?
Real-time email analysis allows employees to submit suspicious emails and receive immediate feedback on whether a message is safe, malicious, or part of a phishing simulation. This reinforces learning while alerting security teams to real threats using Field Effect’s Suspicious Email Analysis Service (SEAS).
How does security awareness training support compliance?
Security awareness training supports compliance by meeting regulatory requirements for employee cybersecurity education while also providing measurable reductions in human-driven risk.
How does SAT work with managed detection and response (MDR)?
SAT complements MDR by addressing the human entry points attackers exploit most. While MDR detects and responds to technical threats, SAT empowers employees to recognize and report suspicious activity, making employees a critical layer of protection in defense-in-depth strategy.
What are the benefits of combining Field Effect MDR with SAT?
Combining Field Effect MDR with SAT helps organizations reduce human and technical risk, detect threats faster, prevent breaches, improve incident response, and build a strong cybersecurity culture.
What is a cybersecurity culture?
A cybersecurity culture is an environment where employees understand their role in protecting the organization and feel confident reporting suspicious activity without fear or embarrassment. Effective security awareness training is essential to building this culture.
How can organizations get started with security awareness training?
Organizations can get started by booking a demo with Field Effect to see how integrated MDR and modern security awareness training work together to reduce risk, build resilience, and empower employees.
