Jack Mitchell
In today’s digital world, cybersecurity is not the exclusive domain of the IT department. All employees using email, cloud apps or any other company device must be involved in the process of securing the data of the organization. Human mistakes are among the major reasons why hackers manage to penetrate the company’s network; therefore, security training should become an integral part of employees’ activities.
What is Learning Management System (LMS)?
A Learning Management System (LMS) refers to the use of technology to help organizations design, manage, deploy and monitor the growth of training programs for the organization’s workforce. In the context of cybersecurity, the LMS comprises various training modules on topics ranging from passwords, ransomware, privacy, social engineering, and safe internet usage among others. The employees can complete the courses independently while administrators will monitor their progress using dashboards and reports.
Current LMS includes tests, certificates, interactive videos and learning paths tailored for various roles. It ensures that each employee undergoes training which is relevant to his or her job role. The training is updated in accordance with the latest cyber threats.
Advantages of a Learning Management System
- Enhancing Knowledge via Continuous Learning
A learning management system helps to make cyber security awareness training easy, efficient, and quantifiable. Rather than holding periodic classes, a company can conduct continuous training throughout the year. Training status, test results, and learning progress are all automatically tracked, thus helping managers to detect knowledge deficiencies.
It also helps in reducing the time spent on administration through automation of enrollment, reminders, and certification processes. With the growth of the company, it becomes easy to train thousands of people using an LMS without reducing the level of training.
- Phishing Simulation
Phishing simulation is a practical cyber security drill where phishing emails are sent to employees as part of a practice attack. The goal of such simulations is to test if the organization’s employees are able to identify these emails without responding. It should be noted that the purpose of such drills is not to scold employees but to educate them.
Commonly, phishing simulation drills involve imitation of false invoices, password reset emails, delivery notices, or messages from high-ranking executives. In case an employee clicks on any of these emails, a pop-up notification appears with an explanation of what was wrong about the message in question.
Advantages of Phishing Simulations
The practice of running phishing tests regularly helps employees detect potentially dangerous emails even before they can pose any threat to an organization. In addition to all of that, companies usually get fewer employees who take action on malicious links and faster responses to any suspicious emails.
In addition, the reports generated by the process give great information for security specialists. Departments and specific users with the need for further training will be detected. With the help of such a tool combined with learning management systems, one can develop a cycle of constant improvements in cybersecurity awareness of staff members.
Conclusion:
Learning Management Systems and phishing simulations complement each other in creating a comprehensive cybersecurity awareness program. Since LMSs provide structured learning while phishing simulations test application of that knowledge in real-life scenarios, organizations that embrace both will not only improve employee awareness and compliance but will be able to mitigate the risk of being phished and defend against modern cybersecurity threats.
