What’s the best way to get your employees all fired up about security awareness? How about having a chat about their grandparents?

Neal O’Farrell, June 18 2026

If you accept the theory of the information action fallacy – the widely held belief that more training does not lead to more behavior change and the only thing that will is a strong personal and emotional motivation to change – then there’s no stronger emotional trigger for greater security awareness than talking to your employees about the threats to their grandparents.

With so much focus on workplace and enterprise security, we often forget some of the most vulnerable and tragic victims.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, older Americans are now losing more than $80 billion every year to some of the most heartless scams. For many of these victims it’s not just financially devastating, but emotionally and physically too. In many cases it will not just harm their lives but end them prematurely.

The epidemic is so great it’s been described as the greatest transfer of wealth in American history.

And the harm is trickling down to all of us. Financially devastated older Americans can often become a greater emotional and financial burden on their kids and their grandkids. Even a burden on social services.

As the cruelty of pig butchering soars around the world, their most lucrative crimes are romance and crypto scams and their favorite targets are – you guessed it – the elderly.

By focusing on protecting our most vulnerable generation we’re also taking money and incentive away from the criminals behind these cruel scams.

That’s the story you need to be sharing with your employees. Reminding them that when they’re participating in employee security awareness they’re not just protecting against cyber attacks on the workplace, but against a global criminal ecosystem that includes those targeting their grandparents.

Security awareness is fundamentally about changing a handful of habits. Habit experts tell us that the best way to change any habit is to have a strong personal and emotional motivation to do so. The motivation is all around. You just have to point it out.