Top 12 Cybersecurity Training Courses for Your Employees
Despite all the advances in cybersecurity tools, employees remain the weak link in organizations’ digital armor. Fortunately, cybersecurity awareness training programs have grown in both number and sophistication, giving businesses a better chance to keep a single phishing email or malicious link from turning into a crippling cyberattack .
With so many options available, it can be difficult for companies to find the best cybersecurity training tools and services for their needs. Here then are our picks for the best cybersecurity training tools, followed by a discussion of product features and buying considerations.
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The following companies were selected for the quality of their features and content, in particular their training materials related to phishing . Many of them have also scored high on resources like the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the Forrester Wave for Security Awareness Training.
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NINJIO prepares organizations to defend against cyber threats through their engaging, video-based training courses. They earned the highest score among providers named “Customer’s Choice” in Gartner’s 2022 “Voice of the Customer” Security Awareness Computer-Based Training report. Teams love NINJIO because of their Hollywood-style microlearning episodes, each based on recent, real-world breaches. Click below to get the full Gartner report and 3 free episodes, and see why everyone loves NINJIO.
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ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training is specifically designed to educate your workforce—because employees who recognize phishing , avoid online scams and understand internet best practices add a vital layer of protection for your business .
Developed by ESET researchers and educators, this comprehensive online course takes under 90 minutes to complete. Employees enjoy an engaging learning experience through gamified quizzes, interactive sessions and role playing.
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KnowBe4 is the superstar of the field, currently raking in $400 million in annual revenue and projected to grow at a stunning 78% per year over the next 5 years, according to Wall Street analysts. KnowBe4’s main business focus is security awareness training, as opposed to others that develop security applications as their main strength. KnowBe4 offers baseline testing to find out how phish-prone an organization is, and has a huge library of engaging security awareness training content, automated training campaigns, simulated phishing attacks , and a way to monitor improvements in user behavior.
Key Features :
In terms of pricing, KnowBe4 offers four pricing tiers for interested buyers, priced per seat per year with scaling rates based on the total number of seats in a class. Each tier offers more security training features to go with the increased price. There are also three add-ons that users of any tier can purchase as part of their subscription. The prices on these also scale with the total number of seats in a class.
Proofpoint acquired its security training technology in 2019 from Wombat. Proofpoint Security Awareness Training helps organizations deliver the right training to the right people at the right time, with education tailored specifically to the vulnerabilities , roles and competencies of a company’s users. Proofpoint provides that education in small, digestible segments to create enduring change in user habits. The company also offers email security , threat protection, and cloud security tools.
Key Features :
Pricing for Proofpoint’s training is included as part of its Proofpoint Essentials service. Subscribers to that service can access its security awareness training for $1.10 per active user per month. A free trial for the company’s training service is also available.
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Ninjio uses short, animated videos designed to keep trainees’ attention while demonstrating the necessity of cybersecurity . Each video is between three and four minutes long, and they release new ones each month. Based on real companies that have had a security breach , the training offers scenarios employees might encounter and how to address them. And there’s even a gamified leaderboard to encourage engagement and keep employees involved. User reviews have been very positive.
Key Features :
Interested buyers should contact Ninjio for pricing information.
ESET cybersecurity training provides on-demand training that allows employees to follow along at their own pace and repeat courses when they need a refresher. Rather than covering all of the issues surrounding cybersecurity , the courses focus on the ones employees are most likely to face, like phishing , credential theft, and social engineering. There’s a free option that covers the basics and best practices for remote employees, but if you want gamification, email reminders, and a phishing simulator, you’ll need to upgrade.
Key Features :
ESET offers two forms of security awareness training: a free, basic 60-minute course and a paid, premium 90-minute course. The premium course provides additional features like gamification, a phishing simulator, and automatic email reminders. The premium course starts at $250 for training 10 employees and scales up from there, to a maximum of $1625 for training 100 employees.
Lucy is focused mainly on the European market but has been growing steadily and has established a U.S. office. It consists of a series of modules to test, train, and engage employees as well as test the infrastructure to look for weaknesses. As well as phishing attacks , it educates users on ransomware , portable media attacks , malware simulations, file-based attacks , and spoofing attacks via realistic simulations.
Key Features :
Lucy currently offers three tiers of its training service, but interested customers will need to contact the company directly for pricing details.
Cofense PhishMe takes a broader view than staff education. In addition to training, it catches the phishing emails that bypass email gateways. It rapidly detects, analyzes, and automatically quarantines phishing attacks . In addition, the company offers PhishMe Playbooks that are 12-month programs with phishing simulation scenarios, landing pages, attachments, and educational content.
Key Features :
Interested customers will need to contact Cofense directly for pricing information.
CybSafe offers simulated phishing , training, and the ability to establish risk perception levels. By assessing someone’s basic knowledge of security with a few questions, their perception of different risks, and how confident they are, CybSafe can tailor itself to each person’s needs with personalized awareness training, security advice, and threat updates.
Key Features :
CybSafe offers 5 tiers for its training service. The first tier, Starter, is free. Potential customers must contact CybSafe directly for a pricing quote for the remaining 4 tiers.
The Elevate Security Platform uses benchmarks, tailored security controls, and personalized feedback to focus attention on risky employees. Once again, it is technology backed by user education rather than purely being user security awareness training.
Key Features :
For pricing, Curious buyers will need to get in touch with Elevate Security personally.
Mimecast Cyber Awareness Training uses humor to engage employees and change behavior via awareness training videos. It uses recurring characters and themes to communicate information with content written and produced by TV and film industry professionals in an effort to maintain employee attention and reinforce training.
Key Features :
Interested buyers should contact Mimecast directly for pricing details.
Living Security sees security awareness training as a starting point where human risk management is the next evolution in decreasing cyber threats in an organization. It focuses on risk minimization rather than KPIs based on a phishing report. As such, the company provides personalized campaigns of content based on the threat indicators of the customers. This includes live-action experiential learning rather than video training of long modules (10 to 30 minutes). Living Security uses gamification to increase employee engagement.
Key Features :
Living Security only makes its pricing information available to users who contact the company directly.
SANS Technology Institute offers full undergraduate and graduate programs in cybersecurity , but it also offers employee training for businesses. The computer-based training includes different training styles to match your corporate needs and employees’ learning styles. It includes challenging games that keep users involved and helps them retain the information better. Additionally, SANS offers an Insight Risk Assessment, allowing your organization to prioritize training on the threats you’re most likely to face.
Key Features :
SANS Technology Institute has no publicly available pricing information. Prospective buyers should contact the Institute to learn more.
Infosec IQ offers pre-built cybersecurity training programs or allows companies to build their own from existing modules. There is a large content library complete with both industry and role-specific training modules to prevent your employees from learning about topics that don’t impact them. The phishing simulator provides instant feedback when a user takes unsafe actions, so they can safely learn from their mistakes. There are over 1,000 pre-built simulations to choose from, but you can also build your own.
Key Features :
Infosec IQ’s security awareness training comes in three tiers, each with more features than the last. However, the prices on these three tiers are not publicly available. Interested organizations will need to complete a form on Infosec IQ’s website in order to unlock pricing details.
Need More Cybersecurity Training Options? Read Top 15 Cybersecurity Certifications for 2022
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The vendors in this field are quite varied. Some are squarely focused on user education while others are developers of security tools that have expanded into the training arena.
Key features from the standpoint of employee security training include:
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Those considering their security awareness training options should consider the following:
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The current focus of most security awareness training initiatives is on phishing – and with good reason. Phishing is responsible for the bulk of breaches. Users get hoodwinked into clicking on a malicious attachment or URL and this inadvertently lets the bad guys in. The never-ending threat posed by careless end users has also raised the profile of other solutions like secure email gateways .
As a productivity tool, the email inbox has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. HP Wolf Security reported that 89% of malware now comes from email—a sign that web and browser security are improving, but email remains the big problem.
Among the types of attacks that workers often fall for, “phishing, spear-phishing and/or whaling” is number one, according to Dan Lohrmann, CSO at security awareness training provider Security Mentor.
“Remember that phishing can happen with people clicking on links in emails , but also via social media and even phone calls,” Lohrmann said. Also, people are still opening attachments from strangers, he added.
Social engineering essentially involves running a con, using email or a phone call, to gain access to a protected system or information through deception, often via spoofing . In the case of spear-phishing or whaling, both terms for more targeted attempts at scamming important high-value individuals, a considerable amount of effort can go into fooling victims.
Lance Spitzner, director of Security Awareness at the SANS Institute, cautioned that scammers like to use social engineering to make their victims jump to attention and get hearts racing.
“The most common tactic cyber attackers use is creating a sense of urgency, pressuring or rushing people into making a mistake,” Spitzner said. “This can be a phone call where the attacker pretends to be the IRS stating your taxes are overdue and demanding you pay them right away, or pretending to be your boss, sending you an urgent email tricking you into making a mistake.”
Research from Cofense, home to the PhishMe simulation program, shows that workers tend to lower their guard when money is involved. John “Lex” Robinson, anti-phishing and information security strategist at Cofense, says, “All these models involve the exchange of money, an emotionally charged topic that elicits strong responses,” he said.
Some attackers don’t care much about stealing valuable information. Instead, they use malware that encrypts a victim’s files and holds them hostage without ever transferring the data . They demand a ransom for the encryption key that restores access to those files, hence the term ransomware .
Approximately 37 percent of global organizations said they were hit by ransomware in 2021, according to an IDC survey.
“Ransomware and phishing continue to be the most common attacks users are falling for,” observed Rob Clyde, chair of ISACA and executive chair of White Cloud Security . “Moreover, attackers often find that it is easier to make money using ransomware attacks .”
Good data protection practices, particularly maintaining reliable backups , can make ransomware more of an inconvenience than a cripplingly expensive cybersecurity incident, although IT security teams and administrators will likely have their hands full sanitizing affected systems .
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It may seem like an uphill battle, but there are ways businesses can arm their employees against these and other devious methods attackers use to scam businesses out of sensitive information or their cash.
Here’s what to consider while evaluating a security training awareness vendor or creating a program of your own.
When a new employee comes on board, security training typically takes a back seat to filling out HR paperwork, being assigned to a work area, and getting issued a laptop. Brandon Czajka, virtual chief information officer at Switchfast Technologies, believes in getting employees ready for the cybersecurity threats they’ll encounter during any given workday from the moment they accept a job offer.
“There are several security training vectors available out on the market that can easily be incorporated into an organization’s new hire onboarding process or used as a frequent means of keeping these threats front of mind,” Czajka said, noting that many are similar in this regard.
The cybersecurity landscape can change drastically in no time at all, which is why it’s important to use a security training awareness vendor or service that keeps its finger on the pulse of the market so that employees don’t wind up blindsided by the latest scam.
“Ultimately, it is best to select a training platform that not only defines past data breaches and how organizations responded to them – learning from past mistakes – but also one that keeps the training material up to date with new breaches as they occur in real-time,” Czajka said.
Simulations are used to sharpen the reflexes of air pilots and military personnel in challenging situations and to teach them how to respond. Similar information security training can expose employees to the latest deceptions and attacks , helping them guard against risky behaviors that can lead to data breaches.
Cofense’s Robinson advocates a similar “learning by doing” approach to block security threats that workers may encounter during the course of their jobs.
“This is best accomplished through the use of active threat simulations that provide the end-user an experience they will remember and a new action to take; in the case of phishing , the new action is reporting [the threat],” said Robinson. Organizations that fail to instill this mindset lose the ability “to address and mitigate threats in real-time,” he added.
Learning with the immediate feedback provided by security simulations can help concepts stick, but companies can go further by making it clear why the training is important.
“User engagement is further driven by transparency within an organization,” Robinson said. “To that end, awareness and training materials need to clearly outline why security is important both at work and at home. In other words, make the training personal.”
Weak, reused, and easily guessed passwords continue to be a major security weak spot. According to First Contact, 51 percent of employees use the same passwords for both personal and work logins. They also show that 57 percent of users who have fallen victim to a phishing attack didn’t change their passwords afterward.
Enforcing password policy is one step enterprises should take, combined with multi-factor authentication .
Training Isn’t the Only Way to Help Employees Fix the Password Problem. Check Out the 8 Best Password Management Software & Tools for 2022 .
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If you want employee security awareness training to work, you need to learn what to look for in the programs you’re considering.
Messaging matters, and effective training programs let organizations tailor their content to their audiences.
“The message is different for a group of government internal auditors than for a room full of COs from large companies,” Security Mentor’s Lohrmann said. Other factors to consider include jargon, current hot-button issues, the order in which speakers or instructors appear, and topics to broach. Don’t force your entire team to sit through training on issues that only IT will ever have to deal with.
Droning on about the technical aspects of a cyberattack is a surefire way to lose an employee’s interest. “Audiences love cyberwar stories,” Lohrmann advised. “People remember stories much more than facts and figures.” Choose training programs that tell stories and can connect with employees in a way they’ll understand.
Get the crowd involved to help employees retain the material presented to them. Look at programs that offer interactive modules or simulators to help employees practice what they’re learning. This practice will improve both engagement and retention. At the very least, ask for a show of hands and pepper sessions with questions for a more engaged audience, said Lohrmann.
What is the point of raising staff security awareness if a program falls short on the “awareness” part?
“You need the ability to measure those changes in behavior and the overall impact those changes are having to your organization,” cautions Spitzner. Your training program should include an analytics module, helping you see how employees are performing on their simulations, so you can address mistakes in a safe environment.
The secret to good and effective online training is keeping it “brief, frequent and focused on a single topic,” Lohrmann said. Additionally, it should be ongoing to help users keep up with the latest trends. Echoing some of the themes above, it should also be engaging, entertaining, and interactive.
When looking at training programs, consider how often vendors come out with new content. New threats are always emerging, and your training needs to evolve to keep up with them. Cybersecurity training isn’t a one-time thing, but a constant reminder of the threats your business is facing and how your employees can help guard your data .
Finding the right cybersecurity training service can be difficult, but there are some things to keep in mind that can help.
Make sure the service is flexible, with features like customizability and varied training routines to make sure the service can be tailor-made for your organization’s needs.
Keep an eye out for services with solid training for phishing . Phishing is one of the biggest dangers that good cybersecurity training can delay or stop entirely, and if a service does not prioritize phishing as a central concern, it might not be worth purchasing.
When you have the right training solutions for your organization, it’s also important to start training employees immediately. From the day a new employee starts with your business , they can be hit with a phishing attack trying to steal their access credentials. By implementing cybersecurity awareness training early and often, you’re better able to keep your organization safe.
These tips and others discussed above will be invaluable in helping you select and implement the best cybersecurity training for your business .
This article was updated by Zephin Livingston on December 27, 2022.
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