From Campaigns to Culture: Cybersecurity Awareness Beyond October

October always feels like a weird, half-reset button for cyber vigilance.  

Cybersecurity Awareness Month wraps up, reminders are deleted from inboxes, posters come down—and for a lot of teams, the focus slips back to “regular business.”  

But we've spent years seeing what happens when security is an afterthought; we know awareness shouldn’t ebb with the calendar. 

What’s Sticky? 

Every year, we look for signs: what messages are actually sticking?  

This October, what grabbed employees’ attention wasn’t bullet points—it was the personal stories.  

People responded when the risks were made real for them. We heard from clients, organizations, and family members who have personally experienced cyber attacks of all varieties, from toll payment smishing campaigns to voice-deepfake bail money scams.

As the lines between personal and professional blur—due to password reuse, BYOD policies, and ungoverned use of AI tools—companies and individuals alike are seeing the need for a holistic education around what threats matter most.  

Generic training and lists aren’t enough.  

Your employees need sharper reflexes and instincts, as well as to be involved in ongoing conversations about emerging threats in both personal and professional capacities... not just reminders about strong passwords. Security gaps are no longer exclusively a technology or IT issue; human intuition and broad workforce awareness are becoming just as important for defense. 

To solve this, as part of an ongoing project, our team created a Family Incident Response plan for workforce distribution—something we can do for you, too.   

Trends That Shaped 2025 

Unless you’ve been offline until this exact moment, you’ll know Generative AI showed up in just about every arena imaginable.  

1. Deepfake phishing campaigns and scam calls are forcing businesses to get smarter, faster, about who’s really on the other end of every message. Vendor payment and third-party phishing scams continue to improve in their realism as well as volume. 
2. The return to office trend hasn’t done much to establish boundaries between work and home. It’s still challenging to track and control sensitive information.
3. Companies attempting to “block” AI tool usage are finding cyber erosion to be a very real phenomenon—given no safe option for their jobs, employees turn quickly to whatever external tool they can.  
4. And attackers are getting bolder—ransomware kits are for sale like subscription boxes; no expertise required. All of this landed squarely on ordinary employees; those who aren’t trained can become the weakest link, fast.  

Our Security Culture and Awareness Philosophy: Think Outside the Box 

If there’s a lesson to take from October 2025 campaigns, it’s that one-size-fits-all workforce awareness programs aren’t a good use of your resources.  

While ethical phishing and MFA pointers are table stakes, in-depth training needs to be creative, hands-on, and tailored. Here’s what actually worked, as we look back at our most successful security awareness projects: 

• Show...and tell!  
  • It isn’t enough to describe how realistic AI is in an email; showing customized deepfake videos of a simulated CEO scam will do a lot more for employees than a verbal reminder.  
• Make it social and competitive.  
  • Scavenger hunts, gamified challenges, and trivia bring teams together and keep brains engaged far better than lectures. Bonus: people talk about these experiences long after, cementing good habits!  
• Start micro, build wide.  
  • Address department-specific issues. The tasks HR employees are undertaking aren’t the same as legal or IT, meaning the risks they face are also different. Creating personas and targeted campaigns makes more sense for everyone. 
• Use incentives and real reporting.  
  • Recognize teams who spot scams, share near misses, or report vulnerabilities. Invest in a Champions program to expand the reach into your workforce. Incentives and transparency move the needle... not slaps on the wrist.  

Building Habits That Last 

Cybersecurity shouldn’t be a seasonal concern—threats don’t care if the banners are up or down. At Reveal Risk, our team helps businesses build security into their DNA. Security awareness should be part of onboarding, business reviews, and even casual conversations.

The more regular and creative the engagement, the more likely people are to see cyber risks as just another part of good work. 

Our team can approach your organization with cybersecurity expertise, organizational change management strategies, tailored solutions, and creative ingenuity. 

If you’re looking for “out of the box” ideas that make security stick year-round, keep up the conversation or get in touch at info@revealrisk.com.