Build practical cyber security awareness for remote and hybrid workers through structured training on secure access, devices, data, phishing, fraud, and incident reporting.
Advanced Beginner
Remote and hybrid working gives employees greater flexibility, but it also moves business activity beyond the traditional office network. Staff may access cloud platforms from home routers, use personal devices, join meetings from shared spaces, transfer information through collaboration tools, and respond to urgent messages without immediate support. This cyber security course helps remote and hybrid workers recognise the security, privacy, fraud, operational, and reputational risks created by these working arrangements.
The course develops practical cyber security awareness across identity protection, secure devices, remote access, cloud collaboration, data handling, phishing, social engineering, incident reporting, and security culture. Learners explore how everyday behaviour can either strengthen or weaken organisational controls and how to make safer decisions while working away from a controlled workplace.
Cyber security is the coordinated use of people, processes, technology, and governance to protect devices, systems, identities, networks, applications, and information from unauthorised access, disruption, manipulation, or loss. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 presents cyber risk management through the functions Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover, while ISO/IEC 27001 establishes requirements for managing information security through an information security management system.
This cyber security course translates those broad principles into practical responsibilities for employees working across homes, offices, client sites, shared workspaces, and other remote locations. Learners study secure access, password and authentication practices, device protection, cloud tools, confidential data, communication channels, fraud attempts, reporting procedures, and the human decisions that influence cyber risk.
This course is designed for people who access organisational systems, communications, or information outside a fully controlled workplace.
This course is suitable for:
Remote employees who use home networks, cloud platforms, email, video meetings, and collaboration tools to complete their work.
Hybrid workers who move between offices, homes, client locations, shared workspaces, and public environments.
Managers and supervisors responsible for maintaining consistent security behaviour across distributed teams.
Business owners and operational leaders seeking to reduce avoidable security gaps created by remote access and decentralised working.
Compliance and data protection teams that need employees to understand confidentiality, secure data handling, privacy obligations, and incident escalation.
IT and information security support teams responsible for communicating acceptable-use, access, device, and reporting expectations.
Human resources and learning teams planning structured cyber security awareness for employees and contractors.
Employees using personal devices or BYOD arrangements who need to understand the boundaries between personal and organisational technology.
New starters, contractors, and temporary workers who require practical guidance before accessing workplace systems remotely.
Career-focused learners seeking foundational cyber security knowledge that supports wider professional development and workplace readiness.
Learners who also need guidance on productivity, communication, boundaries, and working practices may find Effective Remote Working Training relevant as complementary professional development.
This cyber security course covers the full remote-working risk pathway: how people connect, how identities are verified, which devices are used, where information is stored, how employees communicate, how attackers manipulate human behaviour, and what workers should do when something appears suspicious.
The five modules examine remote-work threats, passwords and multi-factor authentication, company and personal devices, updates and encryption, Wi-Fi and virtual private networks, cloud collaboration, data classification, secure meetings, phishing, business email compromise, deepfake deception, incident reporting, evidence preservation, policy compliance, accessibility, and measurable behaviour change. The detailed course curriculum is provided below.
Phishing is an attempt to manipulate a person into revealing information, opening a malicious attachment, following a deceptive link, approving a request, or completing an unsafe action. It may arrive through email, text message, voice call, QR code, chat platform, or another communication channel.
Remote workers may be particularly exposed when messages appear to come from IT support, senior managers, customers, delivery services, or trusted cloud platforms. The course teaches learners to pause, inspect, verify, and report rather than relying on urgency, familiarity, or appearance.
Social engineering is the use of deception, pressure, authority, emotion, or trust to influence a person’s behaviour. Instead of attacking technology directly, a criminal may persuade an employee to disclose credentials, change payment information, share documents, bypass a process, or provide access.
The course examines impersonation, fake IT support, urgent payment requests, business email compromise, deepfake deception, and other tactics that exploit routine workplace behaviour.
Tailgating occurs when an unauthorised person gains physical access by following an authorised person into a controlled area. It remains relevant to hybrid workers because they may use offices, client sites, shared buildings, or coworking environments where access controls, visitor procedures, and confidential information must still be protected.
Effective cyber security helps an organisation reduce the likelihood and impact of account compromise, unauthorised access, information exposure, fraudulent payments, operational disruption, and delayed incident reporting.
NIST SP 800-46 addresses the security of enterprise telework, remote access, and bring-your-own-device technologies and recommends that organisations establish appropriate policies and safeguards for these working arrangements.
Practical protection depends on several connected areas:
Identity and access: Strong credentials, appropriate permissions, secure authentication, and verification habits make it harder for attackers to misuse employee accounts. CISA advises that multi-factor authentication adds an additional layer of protection and makes unauthorised access more difficult, particularly for email, remote-access, and billing systems.
Devices and connectivity: Unpatched devices, insecure home networks, unmanaged personal equipment, and unsafe public connections can expose organisational systems and information. ENISA guidance for remote work emphasises secure networks, current security software, backups, secure connections, and locking screens in shared environments.
Data and privacy: Remote workers may handle personal, commercial, financial, customer, or confidential information across multiple tools and locations. Clear policies, approved technology, secure sharing, access controls, and appropriate escalation help organisations meet their own legal, contractual, and professional responsibilities.
Human-targeted attacks: Phishing, social engineering, payment redirection, impersonation, and fake support requests often depend on pressure or trust rather than advanced technical methods. Awareness training helps employees recognise the warning signs and use an approved verification process.
Incident readiness: Early reporting allows the appropriate team to investigate, preserve evidence, restrict access, warn others, and limit further harm. Hiding an error or delaying escalation may allow a manageable event to become a wider organisational incident.
Remote work changes where information is accessed, how employees communicate, and which networks and devices are involved. Security therefore cannot depend only on a protected office boundary. NIST describes zero trust as a model that moves security away from automatic trust based on network location and towards the continuous protection of users, assets, and resources.
Poor cyber security awareness can contribute to:
Compromised accounts and unauthorised access
Exposure of confidential or personal information
Payment diversion and invoice fraud
Loss of customer, employee, or supplier trust
Disruption to systems, communications, and business operations
Failure to follow internal policies or contractual security requirements
Delayed reporting and avoidable escalation of incidents
Inconsistent practices across teams, devices, and locations
Reputational damage following preventable employee actions
Additional investigation, recovery, legal, and operational costs
ISO/IEC 27002 provides control guidance across areas including access control, cryptography, people-related security, and incident response. These themes are particularly relevant when organisations need consistent security behaviour across decentralised teams.
By completing this course, learners can build the practical capability to recognise common threats, protect access and information, question unusual requests, follow organisational procedures, and report concerns promptly. The training supports professional confidence, workplace readiness, stronger cyber security awareness, and more consistent security behaviour across remote and hybrid working environments.