It’s October which means pumpkins are being judged for size and shape by clever decorators, and children are daydreaming about the candy treats they might receive on Halloween. But for the rest of us, it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Started in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an opportunity to educate your customers, coworkers, and friends on how to protect their identities and data.
Make cybersecurity education engaging
An industry has sprouted to support the needs of cybersecurity awareness training. Many of us have experienced watching an awkward video or poorly written slide show with quiz questions at the end as part of an annual company compliance policy. In more recent years, the size and value of the security awareness market has grown substantially which has attracted more creative and professional content producers. As a result, the quality and variety of content has improved.
An excellent example of quality cybersecurity awareness is a production available from KnowBe4 called Inside Man. The producers of the training adopted the continuous plot thread style of modern television to tell a story across a series of episodes. Just like Mr. Robot, The Expanse, Yellowstone, and other popular streaming series, Inside Man offers a compelling plot, character development, back stories, and enjoyable acting. Each episode has several cybersecurity and privacy subjects integrated into the story line and key learnings are summarized at the end of each episode.
Somewhere along the way, Inside Man became a hit. Multiple Reddit threads discuss the plots and travails of the character, and the actors even have IMDB entries. Rumors abound when new episodes will be available (season four is just out).
Prioritize cybersecurity training in your business
There are other very fine productions and training resources out there. The National Cybersecurity Alliance is a non-profit organization that provides many resources to start raising cybersecurity awareness. This resource is a perfect pair to a production like Inside Man.
Inside Man season one was recently released on Amazon Prime video. Sure, there are other examples when songs or films cross over from niche to mainstream. But this is IT! Maybe cybersecurity awareness is still a low priority to many, but it becomes more important every day. Like the feeling of a bad headache, the threat of ransomware or identity theft is real enough for most people.