If you are like me in past years, you always miss the opportunity to do something really creative for Cyber Security Awareness Month. Then in November, you tell yourself, “Next year, let’s do something memorable…”

But before you know it, the summer is over, we are half-way into September, and you don’t have anything planned. You send out some email messages to your “security champions” to start brainstorming, and all of a sudden, it’s October 1…

Early summer is the best time to plan for a gamified CSAM challenge

It’s hard to find people to do program planning work in the summer, and brainstorming is tough to do when it’s so hot outside. But with a bit of help from Click Armor, you can get your program on the right track right now with an innovative, gamified awareness challenge that spans the month of October and builds excitement.

Here are the simple steps you should take now to make sure your challenge is successful, and your goals are met.

1- Determine your budget and staffing availability for the awareness initiative. If you traditionally have trouble finding budget, identify the key barriers and schedule a call to discuss them with us, as well as options to fit your budget.

2- Set out a schedule for getting stakeholder involvement and executive approval. If you need help creating a proposal for a management team, we can help walk you through it.

3- Create messaging to introduce your audience to the challenge, and build up some hype. If your budget allows for any prizes, this should be finalized as early as possible. How many winners will you want to reward? Will you do weekly “challenges” or just one for the month?

4- Launch and keep the messaging fresh. Will you have to book space in the organization’s newsletter, announce during an event or publish something on your Intranet site? We can help provide sample draft content, and even provide you with weekly reports that can be used to tailor your messaging during the month-long event.

5- Keep the momentum going. While a CSAM challenge is fun and does raise awareness, not everyone will get to complete the challenges during the month. Gamified learning works best in small chunks throughout the year. We can provide a plan for driving your team’s proficiency at spotting scams and working within policy requirements over the entire year.

Do it now! You’ll be glad you did when September comes along

Don’t let your CSAM dream die over the summer. You have the opportunity right now to create a vision for the future of your security program that includes your “people” as the key focus, probably for the first time.

Let us help you start a new trend by building a “self-defending team” and a strong security culture. If you’d like a copy of my “Gamified Awareness Challenge Checklist”, please submit a request on our contact form.

Did you know that Click Armor’s gamified simulation solution has been shown to improve employee proficiency in handling phishing threats by up to 50%?

We can provide gamified challenges and simulations in many risk areas. We can also do gamified assessments for teams, without the need to register employees. You can try a simple gamified phishing assessment at www.canibephished.com to test your own phishing awareness skills. 

Contact us to learn more.

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash