If You Really Want To Motivate Security Awareness, You Need To Bring In The Grandparents.
CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES, July 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Neal O’Farrell, one of the world’s longest-serving cybersecurity experts, today announced the launch of The Big Security Talk, a groundbreaking webinar designed to make employee security awareness programs make more sense and achieve better results.
As AI dramatically increases the pressure on the human perimeter, your employees, recent studies have shown that security awareness training does little to improve security or awareness, and behaviorists suggests that training was never meant to change behavior.
A recent major study of nearly 20,000 employees by UC San Diego Health suggests that the billions of dollars invested annually in security awareness training has made little difference.
The study found that during repeated phish testing and training:
• 75% of users engaged with the embedded training materials for a minute or less.
• One-third immediately closed the embedded training page without engaging with the material at all.
• Embedded phishing training only reduced the likelihood of clicking on a phishing link by 2%.
“We’re creating so many unnecessary vulnerabilities simply because we’re looking at security awareness the wrong way,” according to Mr. O’Farrell. “Psychologists have repeatedly warned us that employees don’t change habits because of training, but because of motivation. Policies, rules, and phish testing are simply not motivational.”
That view is supported by world-renowned habit expert BJ Fogg who describes it as “the information-action fallacy” and the false notion that more training will mean more behavior change. Fogg, author of the best-selling book Tiny Habits and founder of Stanford University’s Behavior Design Lab suggests that to persuade employees to change their habits you need to give them a strong personal and emotional motivation to do so.
In his Big Security Talk Neal helps ignite that emotional response and motivation by showing employees how the criminals targeting their workplace are part of the larger and converging criminal ecosystem that’s also targeting their own grandparents and kids with often life-changing scams, targeting the schools and hospitals your employees depend on, and even interfering with their own democracy and elections.
“One of the most powerful lessons I learned from working with thousands of consumers and victims is how quickly and permanently they change their habits once there’s a personal connection to the threat,” said Mr. O’Farrell. “We need to replicate that personal and emotional motivation in the workplace.”
About Neal O’Farrell
Neal O’Farrell is one of the world’s longest-serving cybersecurity experts, 40 years and counting, and has spent the last 25 years focused on the intersection of employee security awareness and consumer security behavior. His non-profit Identity Theft Council was the recipient of SC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award and his training has been used by hundreds of organizations including Autodesk, Plaid, Voya and more than 100 universities. To learn more please visit www.nealofarrell.com
If you’re interested in learning more about the Big Security Talk, and especially in featuring it as part of your National Cybersecurity Awareness Month program please contact Neal O’Farrell at emailme@nealofarrell.com.
Neal O’Farrell
Neal O’Farrell LLC
+1 9259140248
email us here
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