Friday 21 August 2009

Cradle-to-grave security awareness

Today's release of Information Security 101 adds another valuable tool to the security awareness toolkit from IsecT Ltd.

Information Security 101 was formally known as the Induction Module and that remains its primary purpose: facilitating security induction courses for new employee orientation. It provides a coherent and comprehensive set of foundation level awareness materials covering the basics of information security, the kinds of things that all new employees (and indeed contractors, consultants and even temps) should soon become familiar with when they turn up for work.

All the awareness materials from the original Induction Module have been thoroughly revised, updated and refreshed, with several brand new items being added. 
Information Security 101 still provides three parallel 'streams' of materials addressing three audience groups with subtly different awareness information needs and perspectives:
  1. General employees or staff have broad responsibilities for information security and need to know the simple things such as choosing good passwords, running antivirus and backing up their data. For them, security is an incidental aspect of their work and home life that most don't really consider without some conscious effort being made to make them aware;

  2. Managers and Directors have specific governance and compliance obligations in respect of information security although they may not at first appreciate this. They are invariably busy people, yet take an interest in high level security strategies, policies and so forth. Getting managers on board with information security significantly improves the chances of the awareness program resonating with staff and ultimately being successful;

  3. IT professionals have an obvious interest in the more technical IT security controls. They are broadly expected to design, implement and operate most of the IT security controls on behalf of general IT users throughout the organization, yet it is not uncommon to find that IT pros have had limited exposure to even fundamental information security principles during their formal education, let alone leading security practices such as federated identity management and multifactor authentication.
As well as its use for induction/orientation purposes, Information Security 101 gives extra value by helping organizations launch (or relaunch!) best-practice security awareness programs. Bringing the whole employee base quickly up to speed on information security ensures that everyone has a firm grasp of the basics, preempting the regular security awareness activities that follow. 

Information Security 101 embodies our passion for the subject. Few if any information security managers would dispute the importance of security awareness, training and education, yet they seldom have the time or indeed the skills to really do it justice. By providing "camera ready" security awareness materials on topical subjects, we release our customers from the tedious burden of researching, writing and polishing the awareness content, leaving them free to concentrate on the fun part - interacting with employees, promoting good security practices and enthusiastically spreading a little of that passion we mentioned. In some ways, it's a shame we can't walk the last mile with you ... good luck.

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