Fortinet finds nearly 70% of organizations say their employees lack security awareness

Fortinet today released its annual 2024 Security Awareness and Training Global Research Report, highlighting the crucial role a cyber-aware workforce plays in managing and mitigating organizational risk.

“As threat actors harness new technologies like AI to augment the sophistication of their attacks, it’s increasingly crucial that employees serve as a robust first line of defense," said John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet. "Fortinet’s new research underscores the importance of creating a culture of cybersecurity and the need to deploy organization-wide security awareness and training. These findings reinforce the importance of our award-winning Security Awareness and Training service for enterprises, including the free educational version available at no cost to primary and secondary schools around the world, and its role in strengthening cyber resilience.”

Key findings from the global report include:

• As malicious actors use AI to increase the volume and velocity of their attacks, leaders believe these threats will be harder for their employees to spot. More than 60% of respondents expect more employees to fall victim to attacks in which cybercriminals use AI. However, the good news is that most respondents (80%) also say enterprise-wide knowledge of AI-augmented attacks has made their organizations more open to implementing security awareness and training.
• Employees can be an organization’s first line of defense, but leaders are increasingly worried that their employees lack security awareness. Nearly 70% of those surveyed believe their employees lack critical cybersecurity knowledge, up from 56% in 2023.
• Leaders recognize the importance of security awareness training but believe specific attributes make some training programs more effective than others. Three-quarters of leaders say they plan their security awareness campaigns, delivering content monthly (34%) or quarterly (47%). Executives also point to high-quality content playing a leading role in the success or failure of the program.

One prominent way cybercriminals use AI is to make phishing schemes more believable and harder to detect. Because phishing targets individual users directly, organizations are heavily focused on teaching employees how to recognize and avoid falling victim to these attacks.

• End-users remain attractive targets. More than 80% of organizations faced attacks last year, such as malware, phishing, and password attacks that directly targeted individuals.
• As attacks evolve, security awareness and training will only become more vital. Nearly all (96%) of those surveyed say their leadership team supports employee security awareness training.
• Nearly all respondents (98%) say phishing prevention is a component of their training programs and plans. Other top training priorities include data security (48%) and privacy (41%).

While security and IT teams are crucial to safeguarding organizations against cyberthreats, an enterprise’s employees also play an important role in preventing breaches.

• Employees are open to cybersecurity awareness and training opportunities. Most leaders (86%) say their employees positively view security awareness and training.
• Organizations see positive results when they implement security and awareness training programs. An overwhelming majority of leaders (89%) say their organization saw at least some improvement in its security posture after security awareness and training were implemented. Not a single respondent claimed to see no improvement.

Most organizations are motivated to introduce security awareness and training based on their experience of being breached or knowledge of threats in their industry or sector. Almost all decision-makers (96%) say their leadership team supports implementing training to raise employees’ cybersecurity awareness.

According to this year’s survey, 97% of leaders think increased employee awareness would strengthen the organization’s cybersecurity posture. Yet respondents also agree that there are key attributes of training programs that are important for effectiveness.

• Engaging content is paramount. While 86% of decision-makers say they are satisfied with their current security awareness and training solution, the biggest complaint was a lack of engaging content among those not satisfied.
• Consider the time commitment required. Avoid training fatigue by considering the amount of time required from learners. Demanding too much time from employees can overburden them. Between 1.1 and 2.0 hours is the most common time proposed, with three hours as the average.

One breach incident alone has significant repercussions for a business. It is vital to build a three-pronged defense strategy that includes security awareness and training for all employees, technical cybersecurity skills for IT and security staff, and advanced security solutions for the network.

Beyond teaching individuals what to do when they encounter threats, awareness and training lay the foundation for creating a culture of cybersecurity throughout the organization. Fortinet offers its Security Awareness and Training service to businesses that want to develop a cyber-aware workforce. Designed by the Fortinet Training Institute’s world-class trainers, this service covers a broad range of topics, offers content customization opportunities, and reinforces learnings with periodic reminders and checks. Organizations using the service also have access to a variety of dashboards to track learner progress and reporting to address cyber insurance and compliance needs.

About the Fortinet Cyber Awareness Survey:

• The survey was conducted among more than 1,850 executive-level and management-level professionals from 29 different countries at organizations with security awareness and training.
• Survey respondents came from a range of industries, including manufacturing (17%), financial services (13%), and technology and professional services (11%).