At a time when cyberattacks are surging, and social engineering remains the tactic of choice for many hackers, one of the biggest liabilities companies face is security fatigue.

A 2021 survey found that 87 percent of employees reuse passwords. Why?

When employees feel frustrated and worn out by cybersecurity measures such as password reset prompts or multi-factor authentication requests, they’re experiencing security fatigue. This can lead to irresponsible behavior such as password reuse, disabled security steps, and ignoring suspicious account activity.

There are many ways to address security fatigue: with tools like password managers and VPNs, by making it easy and rewarding to report cyber incidents, and most importantly, by providing engaging and relevant cybersecurity awareness training. Here are the key ways high-quality cybersecurity education can eliminate security fatigue:

A significant contributor to security fatigue is exhausting and tedious cybersecurity training, which forces employees to slog through outdated instructional videos or cumbersome digital guides. When cybersecurity awareness content draws employees in with an engrossing narrative and information that’s immediately relevant to their work, they’ll pay attention long enough to absorb critical information.

By consistently reinforcing what employees learn with new content – which can also cover emerging cyberthreats and the latest headlines – companies will help them retain information. This can reduce security fatigue by providing engagement opportunities and showing employees that the company isn’t wasting their time with pointless, check-the-box cybersecurity exercises.

Cybersecurity education is also a way to meet employees’ increasingly audible demands for professional development. Employees will be more invested in keeping the company safe when doing so is helping them hone a marketable skill.

With so many cybersecurity responsibilities to meet, it’s no wonder employees are feeling weary. If you’re interested in deploying engaging and effective cyber-awareness training to prevent security fatigue at your organization, please reach out to Wolk9IT at (646) 741-1166 to learn more. To read more newsletter content from Wolk9it, go to https://wolk9it.com/our-newsletters/.