What if someone told you that there was a new way to commute to work in the morning? A way that was more efficient than taking the highways or backroads to avoid traffic – a way that would allow you to save time, headaches and the dangers of driving altogether…you’d be interested, right? Maybe a little skeptical, certainly, but interested. So would we! Changing the way we think about a process or an act does not happen at the flip of a switch. We know that. However, the speed at which technology advances and new products and services hit the market with attempts to make our daily lives easier, faster, better requires us to be open to new ways of thinking about traditional approaches. In this blog, it’s about changing how we think about “cybersecurity training.”
While we can’t help you teleport to your office or lend you a flying car, the concept behind the “better way to commute” scenario is exactly what we at Circadence are advocating for—A new way to think about cybersecurity training and skills development. Now, we realize that might not be as “cool” as teleportation but hear us out.
When it comes to cybersecurity, we believe wholeheartedly that there is a better way to train cyber professionals on the latest tactics and techniques. Why? Current ways of developing professionals with “one-and-done” trainings in classroom settings aren’t working. How do we know this? Because businesses are still getting hacked every day. In 2018 alone, we saw a 350% increase in ransomware attacks and 250% in spoofing or business email compromise. If lecture-based, classroom setting, PowerPoint-driven training courses were working, we wouldn’t still be reading about breaches in our local and national news. Something new, something different has to be done.
Talk to your teams
People develop, use and control the technologies we have available to us. People are the mechanisms by which we execute certain security methods and procedures. People are the reason there are actual tools to help us stop threats. Talking to your team can help gain perspective on how they are feeling with their current workloads and where they want to improve professionally.
Without well-trained individuals who persistently learn new skills and find better (more efficient) ways to operationalize cyber processes and techniques, our businesses and our personal information will be exploited—it’s only a matter of time. While you may be thinking “I send my team to an off-site course and they learn new stuff every time” then great! We invite you to take the next step and talk to those teams about how they’re using what they’ve learned in everyday cyber practice. Sometimes the first step in adopting a new way of thinking about a process (in this case, cyber training), we need to talk to the people who actually experienced it (those with boots on the ground).
Talk to your teams about:
- their experience on-site at the training
- what their main takeaways were
- how they are applying learned concepts to daily tasks
- where they see gaps or “opportunities for improvement”
Listening to teams and asking objective questions like this can shed light on what’s working in your cyber readiness strategy and what’s not.
Reframe negative thoughts
Things that are new and different are disruptive and that can be scary for leaders looking for concrete ROI to tie to cyber readiness solutions. Forbes suggests reframing negative thoughts as well. In thinking about a new way to do cyber training, instead of “gamified cyber learning will never work,” come from a place of inquiry and curiosity instead. Reflect on what feelings or experiences are causing you to think negatively about a new way of doing something.
Ask objective questions like:
- What is gamification in the first place?
- What are the pros and cons of gamified learning?
- How could my team even adopt a gamified learning approach?
Understanding how something works or could work for your specific situation is the foundation for evaluating the merit of any new process or approach presented to you.
Know Today’s Cyber Training Options
How cyber training has been conducted hasn’t changed much in the past several years. Participation in courses require professionals to travel off-site to facilities/classrooms where they gather together to listen to lectures, view PowerPoint presentations and videos, and maybe engage in some online lab work to “bring concepts to life.”
Travel costs incur, time away from the frontlines occurs, and learners often disengage with material that is passively delivered to them (only 5% of information is retained with passive-learning delivery).
One of the biggest gaps in cyber training is that there isn’t a way to effectively measure cyber competencies in this traditional method. The proof is in the performance when professionals return to their desks and attempt to identify incoming threats and stop them. That absolute, black and white, way of measuring performance is too risky for businesses to stake their reputation and assets on.
Leaders who send their teams to these trainings need to know the following:
1) what new skills cyber teams have acquired
2) how their performance compares to their colleagues
3) what current skills they have improved
4) what cyber activities have they completed to demonstrate improvement/progression
Today’s off-site trainings don’t answer those questions until it’s too late and a threat has taken over a network. Professionals can “see” really quick when a learned skill doesn’t translate to real life.
Embrace the journey of learning
There is a better way to train professionals and it can happen with gamification. But don’t let us be your only source of truth. Talk to people. Listen to their experiences training traditionally and hear firsthand what they want out of a skill building opportunity. Read the latest research on gamification in the corporate workplace. Then, make connections based on the intel you’ve gathered to evaluate if gamification is right for your organization’s professional development approach.
We’ll be here when you’re ready to dive deeper into specific solutions.
Photo by Sergio Souza on Unsplash
