By Dave Alison
Building a positive email security reporting culture is vital to the protection of any organization. Your employees are the first line of defense for any attacks that make it through your perimeter security, and by focusing on a positive program, rather than a punitive one, you can engage employees and make them part of the solution, not the problem.
The five focus areas for building a positive reporting culture are: Communication, Reporting, Realism, Reward, and Acknowledgement.
Here are five specific tips that can help you accomplish this:
1. Communication
Inform your employees of the importance of email security, and the role they play in protecting your organization from malicious actors.
Employees play a vital role in protecting the organization from malicious email phishing attacks. By reporting suspicious emails, they can help create a strong line of defense against cyberattacks. Make sure everyone in the organization understands the importance of email security. Regularly send out reminders and best practices and be sure to make yourself available to answer questions.
2. Reporting
Make it easy for your employees to report suspicious emails.
The first step in building a positive reporting culture is to make it easy to report suspicious emails. Provide employees with a simple way to forward suspicious emails to the IT or security team and make sure there are no repercussions for doing so. We recommend a reporting button embedded directly into your email client that routes the email directly to the security team with one click. Other forms of reporting can be used, but they are often less effective and inefficient.
3. Realism
Use active real phishing scenarios for your simulation program.
One way to encourage employees to report suspicious emails is to use active real phishing scenarios in your simulation program. By using real phishing attacks, employees will be more likely to report them if they fall for them and learn from that experience. This also ensures your employees are learning from the most current attack attempts as threat actors are always evolving their actions to circumvent the latest security protocols. Leveraging real threat scenarios will help you better protect your organization from cyberattacks.
4. Reward
Reward your employees for reporting suspicious emails.
Incentivizing employees is a great way to encourage them to participate in positive email security practices. One way to do this is by rewarding employees who report suspicious emails. This could be in the form of a bonus, gift card, or even just public recognition.
5. Acknowledgement
Celebrating the success of your email security program is a great way to show your employees their efforts are appreciated, and their contributions make a difference.
- Make sure everyone in the organization knows about the successes of the email security program.
- Publicly recognize employees who have contributed to the success of the program.
- Hold a celebration event to mark the success of the email security program.
- Give out awards and recognition to the employees who have made significant contributions to the security email program.
Creating a positive email security reporting culture doesn’t have to be difficult. By following these five tips, you can encourage your employees to be proactive in identifying and reporting suspicious activity. In doing so, you’ll create a strong line of defense through your well-conditioned employees and help protect your organization from costly cyberattacks.
