Staff guidance and training procedure in cyber security

Our organization has defined procedures for maintaining staff's cyber security awareness.These may include e.g. the following things:

• staff receive instructions describing the general guidelines of digital security related to their job role
• staff receive training to maintain the appropriate digital and cyber security skills and knowledge required for the job role
• staff demonstrate through tests that they have the security skills and knowledge required for the job role

Training should focus on the most relevant security aspects for each job role and include often enough the basics, which concern all employees:

• employee's personal security responsibilities (e.g. for devices and processed data)
• policies relevant for everyone (e.g. security incident reporting)
• guidelines relevant for everyone (e.g. clean desk)
• organization's security roles (who to contact with problems)

A log is kept of the cyber security training events provided by the organization to its staff. The log can be used to show what kind of specific investments the organization has made towards staff's cyber security expertise.

For each training the documentation should include:

• Time
• Topics and duration of the training
• Training method and trainer
• Staff involved in the training

The organisation should have a procedure for training and guidance of its personnel. These procedures should include and cover at least the following topics:

• Information security policies.
• Reporting of security incidents.
• Response to malware incidents.
• User account and login information policies (e.g., password policies).
• Compliance with information security regulations.
• Use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when sharing sensitive information.
• Use of external IT services.

The training program should identify specific groups of employees who require this training, such as administrators, those with access to customer networks, and manufacturing personnel.

The training concept must be approved by responsible management. Conduct training and awareness programs regularly and in response to specific events. Ensure that employees know who to contact for information security concerns.

The organization must have a training program defined for personnel regarding data protection. The trainings should take into account the protection need of data when determining the scope, frequency and content of the training.

Personnel who work in critical areas (e.g. IT administrators) must be trained and instructed taking into account their work. They should have specific training courses and instructions.

The top management and the people responsible for the risk management system of the organization must take appropriate cyber security training. The training ensures that their skills and knowledge are sufficient for determining the risks, assessing the cyber security management practices and overall governing and leading the process.

The management body should undergo training at least every two years to keep their knowledge and skills relevant and up-to-date. The training should reflect the organizational needs and be kept in line with the organizational cyber security policies.

The organization enhances security culture by developing comprehensive training materials, requiring onboarding and annual refresher training, and customizing sessions by role and department. It regularly updates training content, and tracks participation to ensure compliance and accountability.

The organization enhances data security awareness by training employees on best practices for handling sensitive data securely, demonstrating the risks of portable device loss, guiding secure document sharing, and raising awareness about public sharing pitfalls. Regular security drills and open incident reporting channels further reinforce the importance of safeguarding data.

The organization strengthens its security posture by training employees on the importance of software updates, instructing them on verifying updates, and recognizing automated process failures. Clear reporting procedures, real-world simulations, and fostering a proactive incident response culture further improve the workforce's ability to maintain system security and quickly address potential vulnerabilities.

The organization enhances its security training by developing role-specific modules, providing secure system administration courses for IT staff, offering OWASP Top 10 vulnerability training for developers, and delivering advanced social engineering awareness for high-risk roles.

The organization needs to remind employees of their roles and security responsibilities. The reminder reinforces staff security awareness, safe practices and compliance with guidelines and legal requirements related to their job role.

Before granting access rights to data systems with confidential information employees have:

• received appropriate guidance on their security responsibilities (including reporting responsibilities and responsibility for their own devices)
• received appropriate guidance on their security roles related to their own role (including digital security rules related to their role and information systems and their acceptable use)
• received information from cyber security contacts who can be asked for more information

The effectiveness of cyber security training is regularly evaluated. The evaluation may include e.g. the following perspectives:

• Is the competence of the staff deep enough?
• Are the training methods and amounts correct?
• Are different units trained in the right things?
• Is the staff motivated to learn?
• Does the staff understand the reasons for the training (e.g. what kind of negative effects can a cyber security breach have?

By informing the units on the most important cyber security issues for them and in the language they understand, great strides can be made at the level of cyber security as staff have a better understanding of why different policies and rules apply. Informing can include distributing cyber guidelines in small chunks, various campaigns (e.g. “Security Day”), leaflets, newsletters, competitions or other similar elements.

Security informing may also be referred to as an "awareness program".

Training arranged before granting access rights applies not only to new employees but also to those who move to new tasks or roles, especially when the data systems used by the person and the security requirements related to the job role change significantly with the change of job role. The training is arranged before the new job role becomes active.

Our organization has defined procedures and responsibilities for protecting systems from malware and trains staff to use the protections and to report and recover from malware attacks.

The organization should use real-life scenarios of security incidents in its training materials to train staff and raise awareness. By simulating actual events, employees can better understand potential risks, identify vulnerabilities, and respond more efficiently during real incidents.