When employees were sent home to work due to COVID-19, cybersecurity teams had to adjust their defenses accordingly. This was especially true due to a massive increase in coronavirus-related cyber-threats. In this environment, security awareness training is especially important, but too many training programs are a mere formality, conducted purely to satisfy a corporate governance or regulatory compliance requirement. ESG research illustrates that comprehensive security training is worthwhile as organizations with thorough training programs were more responsive to COVID-19 cyber-threats and had greater employee productivity. As such, CISOs should eschew “checkbox” training and persuade HR and executives to embrace more thorough security awareness training programs with demonstrable benefits and ROI.
