When we talk about digital security, we often forget one thing: you can't patch humans. That's why training has to start from their reality – so digital security becomes part of the culture, not just the tech.
In many organizations, there's still a notion that awareness is about giving people information. But knowing that phishing exists isn't enough. The important thing is being able to recognize it in practice – in the middle of a busy day – and act on it. That's what we mean when we say it's about thinking securely.
And that takes training. Not testing. Far too often, awareness becomes a task you have to pass. A quiz where you need 80% correct. But that's not how humans learn. We learn from repetition, from examples, from context, and from daring to ask when we're unsure. It's not about making people feel watched. It's about making it clear what they should do – and making it easy to do the right thing.
Train employees in cybersecurity rooted in their everyday reality and behaviour
When we train people in digital security, we shouldn't treat them as risks we need to control, but as teammates we need to educate and equip to navigate the digital landscape more safely. And we do that by bringing their reality into play.
- What do they see in their inbox?
- Which emails feel trustworthy?
- Which decisions do they make quickly because they're busy – and where does doubt creep in?
Those kinds of questions are far more important than whether they can define the term social engineering.
It's about anchoring safety, learning, and taking responsibility for their digital security – which in the worst case can have fatal consequences in “real life”. The kind that makes people dare to act, dare to ask, dare to admit mistakes and learn from them. Because mistakes will happen. People will click. But if you've built a culture where it's OK to speak up, you can react before things escalate. So yes – we can't patch humans.
But we can turn them into a strength and a digital line of defence. A kind of firewall, if you will. Something we've actually written about here >>
Instead of asking “How do we patch humans?”, we should ask: “How do we train them to navigate safely?” That's what truly strengthens your digital security and creates the behaviour that makes the difference in practice.