elearning and Information Security
Lately, we have been seeing an increase in the number of clients requesting elearning on information security. Information security, or Infosec, has become a hot topic for training, especially now with an increase in companies uploading more and more of their intellectual property, internal policies, and industry secrets online for training purposes. But the more accessible a company makes their information to their people, the more risk they have for a security breach.
Employees who have access to sensitive data need to know how to keep it safe. Delivering an information security training via elearning increases the reach of the training program, and makes it easily accessible to learners. Information security awareness typically involves going through a set of guidelines to be followed. Instead of going through a manual on the IT policies and guidelines, it’s far more interesting and relevant to go through an elearning course on information security. Why would you have your learners read a hard copy manual on how to securely handle digital information?
Any training program is ineffective unless it translates into improved performance. One way to deal with this is to help learners relate to the training and help them understand what happens when they do not follow information security policies, which is exactly the kind of thing elearning scenarios are designed to demonstrate to learners.
Also, training on information security is not a one-time thing. Training needs to be repetitive so that information is drilled down, and employees maintain constant vigilance to follow the IT rules in the organization. Periodic training reinforcement is possible through elearning.
Constant change is one of the challenges faced in information security training. As technology evolves, so do security threats. This requires security information training to be updated frequently, a process which is greatly simplified by being available in elearning form.
So with all industries across the board upscaling their training programs to be online, they should consider putting their information security training first, to ensure the rest of their content or employee or customer data isn't leaked.
