Security is a key aspect of business in today's world. Announcements are made daily about new data thefts, breaches, and other related security issues, many of which originate as attacks against the workforce. Accordingly, the importance of the human component of security has become increasingly obvious.

The "Security Awareness Training: It's Not Just for Compliance" study conducted by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a groundbreaking research study examining the implementation and efficacy of security awareness and policy training programs across organizations ranging in size from small to medium businesses to large enterprises, including government entities. The full report analyzes details by organizational size in terms of personnel and revenue as well as by role within the business (IT, Security, and Line of Business), as well as evaluating responses by age groups, 30 years old and younger, 31 to 45, and greater than 45.

This research comes at a time when organizations are seeing data breaches announced weekly. The study arms security and IT decision makers with insight on how to champion security awareness and policy programs where there are none and how to improve their existing programs.

The research study included over 600 respondents representing organizations ranging from 10,000 or more personnel, down to small businesses having fewer than 100 employees. Organizations also included public and private companies, government and non-profit groups. Respondents were evaluated collectively, by age group and organization size.