As has been the case since the dawn of the digital era, the world of cybersecurity is in constant transformation. Threat actors are always modifying their tactics as cybersecurity teams strive to maintain situational awareness. When it comes to social engineering and phishing, attackers are constantly refining their methods making it ever more important for organizations to update security awareness curriculum to incorporate information on the latest strategies.

In a recent article regarding the future of phishing email training, HackRead shares six methods that outline the future of what these trainings could look like. Members are encouraged to review these strategies and implement accordingly.

1. Personalized and precise simulations. Standard training methods are no longer enough to effectively combat the current phishing climate. Each organization needs remedies tailored to their specific organization. By assessing a company’s weaknesses and developing phishing operations that mirror the tactics likely used against them, businesses can offer employees experience in a controlled setting. This enables employees to hone their ability to detect signs of phishing emails to their specific sector or role.
2. Incorporation of game elements and interactive teaching. Using gamification in security awareness can often combat the lack of engagement and inability to captivate employees, which is often a significant impediment to these trainings. Incorporating exercises, quizzes, competitions, and reward systems to enhance employee awareness of phishing attacks and tactics is an effective way to help users retain what they are learning and make it enjoyable.
3. Continuous training initiatives. As phishing tactics are always evolving, making employee training a one-time event is a very incomplete way to go about phishing email training. It makes much more sense to make trainings a process rather than a single classroom-like experience. In the future, organizations will need to shift toward providing ongoing educational programs offering regular updates on emerging threats to reinforce best practices at identifying email scams.
4. Integration of AI. Certain advancements in artificial intelligence promise to transform phishing email training. These will be able to recognize patterns and identify phishing emails with much greater accuracy than traditional tools. These AI-driven solutions will need to be incorporated into employee training initiatives.
5. Practice with realistic scenarios. In the future, training sessions might involve simulated attacks that replicate breaches or recent phishing incidents. Organizations can equip their employees to navigate the shifting landscape of security by staying informed about the evolving tactics used by attackers. This will enable employees to gain valuable training with the most up-to-date types of threats currently facing an organization.
6. Using behavioral analysis and machine learning. By studying employee behavior patterns like email interactions, browsing habits, and response times, machine learning algorithms can pinpoint irregularities that could signal a phishing attempt. This proactive strategy enables organizations to pinpoint weaknesses before they become targets.

Prioritizing comprehensive email phishing training has never been more important and will continue to grow in importance. Beginning now to implement the above methods in your security awareness training will help ensure a robust workforce to meet the challenges of tomorrow. For more information, visit HackRead.