What is Cyber Awareness?

What is cyber awareness?

Cyber awareness refers to the level of awareness and understanding end users have about cybersecurity best practices and the cyber threats that their networks or organizations face everyday. As the volume of cyber threats becomes more rampant and new threats come into focus, what remains consistent is that human error and sophisticated impersonation attacks are behind 90%+ of cyber breaches. By mitigating your organization's risk with an effective cyber awareness program you can make your employees your first line of defense against cyberattacks.  

Importance of cyber awareness for data protection and compliance

More than 90% of cyberattacks today begin with an email, and nearly one in four phishing emails are open by unsuspecting employees. By promoting greater cyber security awareness, you can transform your users from unwitting accomplices into frontline defenders in the war against cyber crime .

Increasing cyber security awareness among your users will undoubtedly help to prevent more cyber security threats. Email-borne threats have always targeted human beings, duping them into clicking on links, opening attachments or providing passwords and personal information that can be used to penetrate cyber security defenses. It doesn't matter how much you've invested in the latest cyber security tools or the most sophisticated cyber security strategies – if your users can't spot a suspicious link or a fraudulent email, your defenses are likely to be compromised.

How cyber security awareness supports compliance

Cyber security awareness supports compliance by helping organizations prove that employees are not only informed, but also prepared to respond to security risks in ways that match regulatory expectations. A cybersecurity awareness program supports this by connecting policy, behavior, and evidence.

Policies about information security, acceptable use, incident reporting, password hygiene, or data handling only matter if employees follow them. Cyber security awareness training helps turn those documents into practical steps employees can remember and use.

Organizations often need to show proof that awareness is active and measurable. That can include:

• Training attendance and completion logs
• Phishing simulation results
• Quiz scores and knowledge checks
• Policy acknowledgments
• Records of program updates and improvements

These materials help demonstrate that cybersecurity management is ongoing rather than one-time or symbolic.

ISO 27001 and NIS2 Directive

ISO 27001 and NIS2 both treat cybersecurity awareness as part of organizational resilience, but they do not approach it in exactly the same way. ISO 27001 is built around an Information Security Management System, while NIS2 is more focused on operational resilience, risk management, and incident readiness for essential and important entities.

ISO 27001's cyber security awareness requirements

ISO 27001 expects organizations to make sure personnel are competent, aware of relevant information security policies, and understand their responsibilities within the Information Security Management System (ISMS) . In practice, that means awareness cannot be generic. It should connect employees to the controls, policies, and risk reduction measures that support the organization’s information security objectives.

• Under an ISO 27001-aligned program, employees should understand:
• The organization’s information security policy and related procedures
• What kinds of sensitive information they handle and how to protect it
• How phishing email, malware , and social engineering attack methods can bypass ordinary routines
• How access control, password management, and MFA support information security
• How to report a security incident or suspected policy violation
• How their role affects cybersecurity risk management , especially if they work with finance data, customer records, or privileged systems

Under ISO 27001, awareness expectations are operational. Employees need to know the rules, understand the risks, and show they can follow the organization’s security best practice requirements consistently. 

NIS2's cyber security awareness requirements

NIS2 raises the bar for cyber security across essential and important sectors by emphasizing risk management, resilience, and faster incident handling. Awareness under NIS2 is not limited to general staff education. It is tied to whether employees and leadership can help prevent, detect, report, and respond to cyber threats that affect networks and systems.

A NIS2-aware workforce should know how to:

• Identify phishing attack attempts, suspicious emails, and other common cyber threat indicators
• Protect network security by following secure access and authentication practices
• Recognize when a cyber incident may need immediate escalation
• Report issues through the correct internal process without delay
• Support resilience measures such as patching, account protection, and safe handling of sensitive information

One of the more specific implications of NIS2 is that awareness training should prepare employees to support faster incident reporting and operational continuity. That means organizations include scenario-based training, incident reporting drills, and exercises that reflect the actual threats the business faces. Tabletop exercises, phishing simulations, and targeted training for high-risk teams are especially useful here.

ISO 27001 vs NIS2 awareness requirements

ISO 27001 and NIS2 both expect organizations to build employee awareness, but they do not approach it in exactly the same way. ISO 27001 frames awareness inside a formal information security management system, while NIS2 pushes organizations to strengthen cyber resilience with practical training, cyber hygiene , and stronger management accountability.

Key cyber threats employees should know about

A cybersecurity awareness training program should focus on the threats employees are most likely to encounter in everyday work. That includes both traditional and newer threats, especially those that target behavior rather than infrastructure alone.

Phishing and impersonation

Phishing remains one of the most common ways cybercriminals gain access. Employees should know how to spot:

• Suspicious emails with urgent requests
• Login pages that imitate trusted brands
• Unusual payment or credential requests
• Display name spoofing and lookalike domains
• Fake password reset or document-sharing prompts

A phishing email may look ordinary, which is why security awareness and repeated phishing simulation exercises matter.

Social engineering attacks

A social engineering attack may happen through email, phone calls, text, collaboration apps, or social media. Employees should understand that cyber criminals often manipulate trust, urgency, fear, or authority rather than relying on technical exploits alone. This is a core reason cyber awareness training should include realistic scenarios rather than just static policy summaries.

Malware and ransomware

Employees should also know the warning signs of malware and ransomware , including unsafe downloads, unusual attachments, or prompts that lead to malicious websites. Even when email security solutions block many attacks, user actions still matter. One unsafe click can create a larger cybersecurity threat.

Insider risk and careless data handling

Not every cyber incident begins with an external attacker. Some involve employee mistakes, misuse, or unsafe habits around sensitive information. Examples include:

• Sending confidential files to the wrong recipient
• Oversharing data through cloud tools or social media
• Storing business data in unsanctioned apps
• Ignoring access rules or bypassing controls

This is where security awareness programs should connect cybersecurity, privacy, and information security responsibilities clearly.

How to build an awareness program for compliance

Building a compliant cyber awareness program takes more than assigning annual training and tracking completion. The strongest programs connect regulatory expectations, real employee behavior, and continuous improvement so awareness becomes part of everyday operations.

1. Start with a risk and compliance baseline

The first step is to understand what the organization needs employees to know and why. That means reviewing regulatory obligations, internal policies, common cyber threats, and the roles that create the most exposure to sensitive information.

• This assessment should identify
• Which compliance frameworks apply
• Which user groups need role-based awareness training
• Which behaviors create the most cyber risk
• Which controls already exist and where awareness gaps remain

2. Build training around real employee responsibilities

Once the baseline is clear, the program should translate compliance expectations into practical employee actions. Staff should understand how their day-to-day decisions affect information security, data protection, and incident reporting obligations.

Training content should cover common issues such as phishing email tactics, suspicious emails, password hygiene, safe online behavior, social media risk, handling personal information, and escalation procedures for a possible security incident.

3. Test whether awareness is working

Training alone does not prove readiness. Phishing simulations, short knowledge checks, scenario-based exercises, and reporting drills help show whether employees can apply what they learned in realistic situations.

A strong testing approach helps reveal whether high-risk teams are improving over time and whether awareness efforts are changing behavior rather than only generating completions.

4. Reinforce the program through ongoing communication

A good cybersecurity awareness program should stay visible throughout the year. Short reminders, manager talking points, policy refreshers, and campaign tie-ins during Cybersecurity Awareness Month can help keep key messages current without overwhelming employees.

5. Improve continuously based on results

Awareness programs should be updated regularly using real performance data. Teams should look beyond completion rates to phishing simulation outcomes, repeat mistakes, incident reporting patterns, audit findings, and employee feedback.

Over time, this helps strengthen compliance readiness and focus cyber awareness training where it will have the greatest impact.

Measuring awareness and compliance readiness

To show that a cybersecurity awareness training program is effective, organizations need metrics that connect learning to behavior and compliance evidence. The uploaded reference highlights training completion, phishing simulations, and incident reporting as core KPIs, and those are the right place to start.

• Training completion rates: show participation, but should be reviewed alongside comprehension
• Phishing simulation performance : helps measure whether employees can recognize and resist phishing attack attempts
• Incident reporting rates: shows whether employees are escalating suspicious activity instead of ignoring it
• Policy acknowledgment rates: helps confirm that employees have reviewed key information security requirements
• Repeat-risk user trends: shows whether targeted coaching is reducing recurring mistakesv

Advantages of Mimecast cyber security awareness training

Cyber security training from Mimecast provides tremendous benefits over other approaches:

• It's easy to manage. As an online platform, Mimecast cyber security awareness training can be deployed globally in just a few clicks. Components like phishing testing are amazingly easy to set up and deploy. And results are presented in easy-to-use dashboards, reports, drill downs and integrations.
• Superior content. In addition to being highly entertaining, the content in our awareness programs is developed by industry experts with first-hand experience in addressing the challenges of cyber security.
• Focused remediation. Personalized risk scores let you target individuals and groups with specialized and personalized remediation measures to make your limited training dollars go farther.
• Seamless integration with comprehensive solutions. Mimecast Awareness Training is fully integrated with Mimecast's all-in-one suite of email security, web security and information archiving technology to deliver a single, comprehensive solution for protecting your organization.

Implementing cyber awareness practices to maintain compliance

Implementing cyber awareness practices is not just about meeting a checklist requirement. It helps organizations turn compliance expectations into everyday behavior that supports stronger security, better incident response, and more consistent protection of sensitive information.

When awareness training is tied to real risks, clear employee responsibilities, and ongoing measurement, it becomes much more effective. That is how organizations can build a more resilient culture, stay aligned with frameworks like ISO 27001 and NIS2, and maintain compliance over time.

Mimecast helps support that effort by combining security awareness training with broader email security and risk reduction capabilities that strengthen compliance over time.