CASE STUDIES

Training as a weapon against cyber attacks in PA

Overview

ADM is a regulatory and supervisory authority, with sanctioning powers, in the fields of energy, alcohol, tobacco and other related products, customs and public gaming. It has about 10,000 employees in about 40 offices throughout Italy. The Agency deals with the assessment and collection of taxes and excise duties, performing customs, tax, currency and judicial police inspection functions.

The challenge

In 2022, ADM embarked on a training course aimed at developing employee “cyber awareness”. This is a key project for an organisation that is part of the “National Information Security Perimeter”, which includes all organisations for which a hacker attack on their information systems would cause damage to the security of the country and also to the physical safety of people.

The solution

To increase the security of its employees from cyber attacks, ADM chose our platform as a solution that combines training effectiveness with fun. The 3 training courses, with their respective learning methods, involved the more than 10,000 employees in an interactive experience that was instrumental in strengthening their awareness of IT security.

Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli chooses Cyber Guru to develop cyber awareness among over 10,000 employees through an interactive, effective and fun training program.

AN ESSENTIAL INVESTMENT

«In the public administration in general, despite some exceptions, unfortunately, due attention is not yet paid to the issue of cybersecurity, despite the increase in hacker attacks» – explains Laura Castellani, Director of Organization and Digital Transformation of the Agenzia Dogane e Monopoli.

«“If we consider the great push we are giving to “full digital”, the danger of suffering attacks with enormous disastrous consequences is certainly greater”». «This is where the need arises – continues Laura Castellani – to also work on security awareness for employees, as it is now known that often various attacks exploit the vulnerability of those who do not have the necessary IT skills. The training plan, which we chose to focus on for 12 weeks, started in December 2022 and ended in February 2023, and allowed us to train employees on the major IT security topics».

When training is fun

“The training took place using three different training methods that made the experience interactive, but above all made it ‘fun’, far from classic e-learning programmes,” says Laura Castellani. The training programme adopted by ADM includes the entire Cyber Guru package and consists of three separate training channels: Cyber Guru Awareness, Cyber Guru Channel, Cyber Guru Phishing. “From the point of view of people’s satisfaction, the course lived up to expectations,” says Castellani. “Now, however, we are trying to find out whether the employees will actually change their behaviour, so we will monitor this closely.” As the Director explains, in the cyber field, ongoing training is crucial: “We must never stop offering training programmes, trying to keep our attention focused. Therefore, interactive courses must be refined to make people realise that any device can be as useful as it is dangerous”.

To read the full interview prepared by the Data Manager click here.