The ability to recognize digital threats, protect personal and organizational information, and practice safe behavior in an increasingly connected world. A foundational competency for everyone in the digital age.
Cybersecurity Awareness is the competency of understanding digital risks and applying protective practices in daily life and work. It spans password hygiene and phishing recognition through organizational security policies, incident response, and security program design. The focus is not on becoming a security engineer, but on developing the judgment and habits needed to minimize risk, respond to threats appropriately, and foster a security-conscious culture at every level of an organization.
You recognize that digital threats exist and take basic precautions. You understand that weak passwords are a primary vulnerability and can create stronger ones. You are aware that not all emails, links, or messages are trustworthy, and you exercise basic caution when interacting with digital content. You begin to distinguish between secure and insecure online behaviors.
What Comes Next
If you've checked off most of this list, you're ready for the Safe Practitioner stage, using a password manager, enabling multi-factor authentication, and practicing consistent safe online behavior. Bandura(1977)'s Social Learning theory suggests studying real security incident cases and observing good security habits builds your threat awareness confidence.
Defines six core cybersecurity functions (Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover) with four implementation Tiers (Partial, Risk Informed, Repeatable, Adaptive), providing structure for Level 3-6 organizational security maturity checklist progression.
A 5-level maturity model (Non-Existent → Compliance-Focused → Promoting Awareness → Long-Term Sustainment → Metrics Framework) providing evidence-based behavioral benchmarks and measurement criteria for checklist item design at each level.
Defines 12 cybersecurity professional role profiles with competency requirements as an EU-endorsed standard, providing authoritative grounding for Level 4-7 organizational and strategic security awareness competencies.
Defines cybersecurity workforce Work Roles, Competency Areas, and Tasks as a U.S. government-endorsed standard, providing government-level authority for establishing boundaries across the 7-level progression from security awareness to security strategy.
