How does security awareness training keep MSPs out of trouble?

The basic idea behind security awareness training is that it strengthens an organization’s best line of defense — its people — and helps to prevent cyberattacks. And that’s exactly what it does. But security awareness training can do a lot more.

That’s especially true for MSPs. Service providers who embrace training and offer it to clients can do more than just increase their revenue. They can also strengthen their relationships with clients and, perhaps more importantly, help protect their own businesses.

The better your clients' employees are at recognizing cyberattacks. the less likely a breach is to occur. This means less trouble for MSPs and fewer opportunities for clients to blame service providers when something goes wrong. Providing security awareness training is just a good idea for MSPs who want to accomplish multiple goals with a single and fairly simple service offering.

First, the obvious question: Does cybersecurity awareness training even work? The answer is yes but with a big caveat. On the positive side, the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), a highly regarded annual study of the cybersecurity landscape, recommends training as an effective method for helping prevent a variety of attacks, including phishing, ransomware and even random errors. The report effectively concludes that training has a positive impact.

However, the DBIR also reveals that almost 70% of data breaches involve a “nonmalicious human element,” or a user unknowingly clicking on a link to malware or ransomware. So, the human element in cybersecurity is critical. People are the last and best line of defense against cyberattacks. Training them is critical.

But it’s not always necessarily successful. The quality of courses matters … a lot. For instance, a Microsoft report found that video-based training with limited interactive elements only reduced phish-clicking behavior by about 3% “at best” over the course of a year, despite widespread implementation. The same report also showed that while about 11% of users reported phishing attempts to administrators, almost 8% clicked on a link in a phishing email and 2% entered credentials.

So, is security awareness training worth offering to clients at all? The answer here is a clear yes. It just has to be the right kind of training. But the advantages of providing training for clients are clear. Security awareness training can help MSPs avoid some awkward and potentially damaging situations with clients.

Any training is better than none, and well-designed training is much better than poorly conceived courses. When you offer cybersecurity training to your clients, you add a layer of security and help prevent them from becoming easy attack victims. If you can help them eliminate human error, you can cut out, statistically speaking, about 70% of data breaches. That means you’re less likely to have to clean up after a breach.

In the event of a client breach, you’re less likely to be liable for any damage that might occur if you’re offering training courses. Fairly or not, clients do tend to blame their MSPs for breaches. A breach can seriously strain a relationship and lead to legal battles. But if, as an MSP, you’re doing everything in your power to protect a client, cyber insurers acknowledge that you ultimately reduce liability following breach damage. And doing everything possible absolutely includes offering training.

Every business needs some form of cyber insurance. That includes both MSPs and their clients. And in most cases, security awareness training is now a prerequisite for obtaining cyber insurance. In fact, awareness training is one of the easiest and least expensive cyber insurance requirements a client can implement.

There is money in security awareness training. Clients should know it’s important, and if they don’t, it shouldn’t be a particularly tough sell. Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that the market for training would grow by 15% year over year from 2023 to 2027. If you can offer courses that are already integrated into your overall package of services, you can boost revenue, foster a closer relationship with your clients and increase cybersecurity protection without putting forth too much effort or expense.

But again, the quality of training matters. A lot of existing security awareness training is ineffective and boring. Acronis has set out to change all of that. Acronis Security Awareness Training provides learning opportunities that are easy for MSPs to implement and engaging for clients.

Acronis Security Awareness Training runs on a multitenant architecture that makes setup and administration easy, so MSPs won’t have to spend hours managing and delivering training. The new Acronis training service also delivers phishing simulations that closely imitate real-life, socially engineered attacks.

Designed using digestible, short courses rather than long video lectures, Acronis Security Awareness Training breaks from less effective and outdated training models and makes learning about security fun. With the boredom and drudgery removed from training, you can ensure course completion, reduce security incidents and simplify support.

Acronis Security Awareness Training is built to:

• Deliver drastically increased user satisfaction with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface, as well as easy-to-digest training sessions that cover a wide variety of topics.
• Gamify phishing exercises that train employees on how to respond to risks within suspicious emails.
• Simulate phishing in a way that that mimics real-life social engineering.

Offering security awareness training to clients is an essential practice for MSPs in an era when the pace and severity of cyberattacks continues to increase. With Acronis Security Awareness Training, MSPs have a training solution that’s easy to manage and effective for clients. They also have some cover in case of a data breach or other issues with clients — something training should hopefully prevent in the first place.