What is Security Awareness?

What is awareness? And why it truly works when training and real-world practice come together

Security awareness is often described as “making employees aware of cyber threats.” That is correct, but it is also too narrow. In practice, real security awareness is not just about knowledge, but about behaviour under pressure. About what people do when they have to decide quickly, when something looks trustworthy, or when someone appears authoritative.

Most companies now understand that technology alone is not enough. Firewalls, EDR, MFA, and SIEM all do their job, yet nearly every serious incident still starts with a human action. Not because people are incompetent, but because they are human.

The reality on the work floor

What we see in practice at companies

Across audits, pentests, and incident investigations, the same patterns keep returning:

• The phishing email was just credible enough.
• The employee hesitated, but acted anyway.
• Reporting happened hours or days later, or not at all.
• Procedures existed, but were unclear or impractical.

Rarely is the problem unwillingness. The problem is context. Security awareness fails when it is disconnected from the reality of people’s daily work.

An employee helping customers wants to help. A finance profile under pressure to process a payment acts fast. An IT engineer who already handled ten alerts that day clicks one away.

That is why security awareness must always align with how people actually work. Training without practice has little effect. Practice without guidance creates frustration.

What security awareness really is

True security awareness is the ability of employees within companies to, in realistic situations:

• recognise signals that something is off,
• consciously pause before taking action,
• and know what to do when something goes wrong.

This means security awareness always consists of three layers:

• Insight: Understanding how attacks work. Not technically, but human-centric. Why phishing works. Why social engineering is so effective.
• Behaviour: What do you do when you are unsure? Do you verify, delay or report? Behaviour only changes through repetition, feedback, and experience.
• Culture: Do employees feel safe reporting mistakes without shame or fear? Is reporting seen as a burden or as valuable input?

Without this third layer, training and testing remain isolated initiatives.

Why training alone is not enough

Many companies start with a phishing test or an awareness training. That is logical and necessary, but the impact remains limited if it stops there. After a few weeks, attention fades, and employees mainly remember that they “failed,” not what to do differently next time.

What actually works in practice at companies:

• targeted feedback immediately after a test or incident,
• regular repetition in small, manageable doses,
• recognisable scenarios from their own work environment,
• and a combination of training and social-engineering testing.

Companies that approach security awareness in a structured way see clear results. Incidents are reported faster, attacks are contained sooner and the overall impact is reduced.

Practical example

Why reporting matters more than acting perfectly

In several incidents, the first employee who noticed something suspicious could have made the difference. Not by never clicking, but by reporting quickly.

At companies with low-threshold reporting, an attack is often isolated within minutes. Where reporting feels like failure, an attack can remain unnoticed and continue to spread.

That is the core of security awareness: Mistakes always happen; speed determines the damage.

What security awareness is not

To avoid misunderstandings:

• It is not a one-off exercise.
• It is not a compliance checkbox.
• It is not a theoretical presentation.
• It is not a blame exercise after a phishing test.

Once employees experience security as something that works against them, it loses its value.

Security awareness as a fixed part of security

Companies that do this well treat security awareness like patching or monitoring:

• continuous,
• measurable,
• and adapted to evolving threats.

They connect training and testing to real risks, real incidents, and recognisable situations on the work floor. Not to abstract statistics.

In summary

What security awareness really means for companies

Real security awareness is a company’s collective ability to limit human error, detect incidents quickly, and report issues without fear. Not by making people flawless, but by making them resilient through training, realistic testing, and clear agreements.

Technology absorbs a lot. People often determine how big the impact becomes.