Attack recognition awareness

Ebbinghaus effect

Why is it so hard for employees to remember security policies and procedures? Because of Hermann Ebbinghaus! OK, maybe not because of Hermann Ebbinghaus, but his research will shed some light on the topic. Ebbinghaus, a Ph.D. in philosophy, was born in Germany in 1850. He dedicated his life to the understanding of memory and retention. Hermann Ebbinghaus' work later became known as the Ebbinghaus effect and marketers are well aware of his concepts. The Ebbinghaus effect states that 50% of all information is forgotten 24 hours after it was learned. It also states that 90% of all information is forgotten after one week. Ebbinghaus' findings are also known as the forgetting curve. Marketers try to combat this extreme falloff of memory by delivering short, consistent, repetitious messages. If you think of the company Aflac, you may quack. This was not done by accident. It was a marketing project used to reduce the Ebbinghaus effect. Sure, Aflac could have delivered a different message every time it created a commercial, but the marketing team knew that it would be a waste of time because no one would remember all the important details. Instead, the team focused on a simple message and the duck. This duck is an important component in reducing the Ebbinghaus effect. It is a memory enhancer that is designed to revert your memory back to the original message.

Attack recognition awareness

Employees need to understand when they're under attack and what it looks like, including what a system may do if a virus or worm is detected. Knowledge of what a social engineering attack, a denial of service attack, and a distributed denial of service attack are is crucial. The network may start to slow down, particular websites may become slow, and employees may not be able to access any network resources. Users should be taught and trained as to the correct procedures for dealing with such an attack, such as contacting IT security and management about the problem.