In general, teaching people is a difficult task. You have to carefully plan on how to address them and be relevant. Each person would have different needs. Whether you plan to teach your staff and employees, or your family and friends, you have to brace yourself.
Some of the factors that would affect how you would teach them about IT security are as follows:
- the person’s experience with computers
Has the person used a computer before? What has the person done so far? Install an operating system? Used some particular applications like word processing software or a web browser like Internet Explorer? - the person’s experience with going online
Each of us would have had different experiences when it comes to our online presence and habits like downloading, checking email and the like. When it comes to downloading materials be it online textbooks or anything else, it would be good to take a profile of the sites the person uses as resources. - enthusiasm
Whether you believe it or not, enthusiasm could affect the reception of the person to ideas and all that. Talking about security is not exactly the same as talking about your favorite car or favorite pet. Unless you think you could gush about firewalls and all those details, that is. Then again, it depends on the person’s experience, as said before.
No matter how easy or difficult it could be, no matter what background the person has, this is an important thing to learn. You are the one who can do it. May you teach them well.