Skip to main content
Need help with a cyber incident now?
Call 24/7: +31 88-2747800

Security-aware on holiday – Communicate at the right time

By 24 June 2019 December 16th, 2020 Behaviour & Awareness, Blog
awareness

This week, I received an email from my healthcare insurer with the invitation to conduct a holiday check. This check is meant to verify if I have properly prepared myself for the holiday. Did I properly organise my travel insurance? Do I know how to reach the emergency helpline? Good tips. In fact, I readily expand this check so that I am not the only one safely going on holiday, but my information is as well.

 

Timing

Of course, the timing of this email is not coincidental. It is almost time again. The summer holiday is around the corner. The suitcases are whipped out and we are already enjoying the anticipation. Offering information about emergency helpline and travel insurance when needed ensures that something is done with the information. As a recipient of the information, you are willing to read this information and to do something with it. Especially if the information assists you in going on holiday in a better prepared manner. This also applies to security awareness.

A holiday means enjoying some well-deserved relaxation, taking a bit of distance from work, not having to set the alarm, loosening up a bit, wonderful. And sometimes the alertness that we observe during the normal working weeks and accept as normal in our own environment ebb away a bit. Shortly before the holiday is a good time to give employees a few tips to handle information securely before, during, and after the holiday.

 

Tempt people

Occasionally, there is quite a bit of room between knowing and doing. Realising a change in behaviour is a matter of repetition, or rather, drawing renewed attention to it. Because although we know that WiFi brings about certain risks, on holiday abroad it is tempting to switch off roaming and to use the internet via WiFi. For example, when you quickly want to check where you can park or have a nice bite to eat. To tempt people to observe information-secure behaviour, a means of communication must comply with various requirements.

 

Form

Motivating is possible in various ways. In this respect, it is important to work with visual elements. People remember 80% of what they see, 20% of what they read, and 10% of what they hear. Moreover, we process visual content 60,000 times faster than textual content. That is why we love using icons. We also did this in our communication about going on holiday in an information-secure manner. Internally, we opted for the form of a flyer. But it could, for instance, also have been a postcard. Supported by information via email or the intranet, this is attractively presented information that invites to do something with it.

 

Recognisability and relevance

To properly align with the experience and perception, it is important to depart from the situation and arrangements and rules within the company. The question of employees “What good will it do to me?” is a justified question that we must be able to answer. Information that we offer must be relevant; employees must see the benefit of it in their work, but also the applicability of the information in their personal situation.

 

Do you also want your employee to have a secure holiday?

To have your employee go on a security-aware holiday, you can have us develop a flyer with tips, geared to your organisation and with your logo. Or do you prefer to have this information in a different form? We are pleased to come by to assess what is best in line with your organisation. Moreover, Tesorion has ample experience in the implementation of security awareness programmes. Perhaps also a topic of conversation?