Give Them A Reason To Care

The goal of security awareness, and the best way to make your life easier too, is supposed to be to about permanently changing just a handful of behaviors, making them second nature so that hopefully they kick in automatically when they matter most.

When teaching adults, whether they’re students, faculty, or staff, we don’t think this can be achieved using cartoons, stick figures, ninjas, or wannabe actors. That might work for teens and high schoolers, but we’re supposed to be beyond that.

Instead, our approach is a direct and personal plea from one of the longest serving security experts on the planet and focused not on reinforcing rules and policies but focusing on the most important first step – giving everyone on your campus a real reason to care enough that they’ll engage.

Focus On The Criminals

How do we do that? We go straight to the real reason we’re talking about cyber security and scams at all. The people behind them. And that’s what matters most.

Psychologists tell us that the best way to change behavior is not through endless training or constant reminders and warnings, but through giving participants the motivation to change.

We believe the best motivation is to remind everyone on campus that the people behind these cyber crimes and scams they’re trying to stop are often if not usually connected to:

• Global organized crime and criminal hacking gangs.
• The horrors of pig butchering and and the enslavement of thousands to carry out these scams
• The heartless scammers who steal to the billions of dollars stolen from seniors and the elderly every year through romance scams, and often shortening their lives.
• The international drug and human trafficking trade.