Jenna Phipps
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Cybersecurity awareness training programs are comprehensive, long-term products that show your workforce how to spot security threats and potential attacks. Cybersecurity training products typically offer informational videos, quizzes, and phishing testing tools like suspicious emails. To help you select the right one for your business, we’ve reviewed the best cybersecurity awareness training programs and their key features, pros, and cons.
Here are the top six cybersecurity training programs:
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The following chart provides a brief overview of our six products’ feature availability. While some vendors don’t offer full free trials for their products, they may offer a few free phishing episodes or another type of demo, so consider those if you’re reviewing the product too.
Table of Contents
Best Overall Security Training Product
KnowBe4 is one of the most popular training products in the field, offering baseline testing to find out how phish-prone an organization is and a huge library of engaging network security awareness training content. Other features include automated training campaigns, simulated phishing attacks, and a tool for monitoring improvements in user behavior. KnowBe4 is particularly good for midsize to large businesses that want reasonably priced, engaging training. Its laser focus on training and its transparent pricing contribute to its spot on our list.
KnowBe4 offers four pricing tiers priced per seat per year, with scaling rates based on the total number of seats in a class. Each tier offers more training features to go with the increased price. There are also three add-ons that users with teams of over 100 can purchase as part of their subscription — the prices on these also scale with the total number of seats in a class.
Best for Small and Midsize Businesses
Proofpoint is a cybersecurity awareness training program that offers small, digestible segments designed to create long-term change in user habits. It integrates with other Proofpoint products, so if your smaller organization is already a customer, consider their security training too. While Proofpoint may not be the best choice for fleshed-out security training programs or large enterprises, it’s a great solution for SMBs, especially ones that haven’t yet implemented a consistent training strategy.
Pricing for Proofpoint’s training is included as part of its Proofpoint Essentials service. Subscribers to that service can access its security awareness training. Proofpoint also offers a free trial for the training service. The company doesn’t list pricing info on its website, so interested buyers will need to contact the sales team directly.
Best for Employee Engagement
NINJIO is a training solution that uses short animated videos designed to keep trainees’ attention. Each video is 3–4 minutes long, and NINJIO releases 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 for NINJIO have been positive overall, which is one of the reasons we ranked it best for employee engagement.
NINJIO doesn’t offer pricing information publicly. If you’re interested in buying, contact Ninjio for pricing info or look at the monthly subscription plan for SMBs. Pricing is per user, per month, with an annual commitment.
Best for Geographically Distributed Teams
Cofense PhishMe is a training product that takes a broader view than staff education. In addition to training, it catches the phishing emails that bypass email gateways and detects and quarantines attacks. Cofense offers PhishMe Playbooks, 12-month programs with phishing simulation scenarios, landing pages, attachments, and educational content. PhishMe provides regional phishing attempts customized to fit typical cyberattacks in different regions of the world, a good solution for international teams. It’s geared toward mid-market and enterprise teams.
Interested customers will need to contact Cofense directly for pricing details since Cofense doesn’t publicly provide subscription information. It does, however, offer a 14-day free trial.
Best for Advanced Teams and IT and Security Professionals
SANS Technology Institute is an employee training product for businesses, but the institute also offers full undergraduate and graduate programs in cybersecurity. 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. Because SANS also offers courses for security professionals, we ranked it best for advanced teams and those that might want to grow further in their cybersecurity knowledge.
SANS Technology Institute doesn’t make pricing information publicly available. Contact the Institute to learn more about its multiple training products, including the Phishing platform, EndUser training, PCI-DSS compliance training, and Cyber Risk Insight Suite for company assessments.
Best for Customer Service
Infosec IQ is a solution that offers pre-built cybersecurity training programs and also allows companies to build their own from existing modules. Infosec has a large content library complete with both industry and role-specific training modules so you can focus your employees’ time and attention on topics most relevant to them. Users have been particularly outspoken about the vendor’s customer service, which is why we ranked this training program best for sales and technical support.
Infosec IQ’s security awareness training has three tiers: Standard, Enterprise, and InfoSec IQ + Skills (for security, IT, and dev teams). Prices on these three tiers are not publicly available, so interested organizations will need to fill out a form on Infosec IQ’s website to receive pricing details.
The vendors in the cybersecurity field offer a variety of products — some are solely focused on user education, while others are developers of security tools that have expanded into the training arena. Even if your team isn’t sure what kind of product you need, look for core features like phishing simulations, customizability, reports and dashboards, and support for multiple languages in every product you consider.
A cybersecurity training suite should have multiple phishing simulations so employees can easily recognize typical attacks. Phishing is one of the biggest dangers that good cybersecurity training can delay or stop entirely, and if a service doesn’t prioritize phishing as a central concern, it might not be worth purchasing. It’s also wise to train employees on smishing and vishing techniques so they recognize potential attacks in text or video; email isn’t the only attack surface.
Your IT and security admins should be able to customize components of the training, like phishing simulations, to best fit your business. For example, if you’re a healthcare provider, the attacks you commonly see might look different than a bank’s phishing attempts. You should be able to customize based on the attacks your team is most likely to see.
If you don’t have clear reporting tools, both your IT team and your executives will have trouble knowing your team’s progress. Make sure the products you’re considering offer ways to logically show your employees’ improvement, as well as the areas where they need to learn and grow.
If you have a multilingual or global team, you’ll need team members to truly understand cybersecurity best practices, and the best way to do that is to train them in their native language. If you have a team based in multiple countries, look for products that support every major language represented in your organization.
If your business is considering purchasing a security awareness training product, look at each solution’s main features, ease of management, pricing, support, and other products, plus the amount of training content your team needs.
Before shopping for a product, create a shortlist of 3–5 key features your team needs for your training course. The other features should be nice to have, but every product you seriously consider should have those few core capabilities. Those might include short animated videos, a specific type of report, or quizzes after each training module. While your list shouldn’t be unattainable, make sure you’re keeping your team’s main needs front of mind.
How is user management handled? Is it a manual process? Assess the ease of administration of whatever vendor you choose. If there are multiple systems or consoles, be sure to ask the degree of integration between those systems. It’s always best to ask as many questions as possible before committing to a product.
Find out how many capabilities come with the subscription level, including what functionality is included versus required managed services and extra fees. Balancing budget with quality is always a fine line, but make sure you’re investing in a product that will last your business years, not a low-quality one that fits your budget but not a growing team.
Some teams may not need detailed reporting or 24/7 customer support, but make sure you communicate with the vendor and know your business’s expectations before making a decision. Additionally, look at existing customers’ reviews — while these don’t give the entire picture, they help your team spot potential weaknesses and gauge whether you’re willing to live with them.
While your business may only be looking for a training product, it could be beneficial if the training solution integrates with your existing security solutions. Some vendors, like Proofpoint, offer multiple security products. Others, like KnowBe4, offer only awareness training. Decide whether you want your cybersecurity training to integrate with other security products in your infrastructure before making a purchase.
Look at the volume and quality of training content provided for each product. How important is it to your organization to have an ongoing campaign with fresh content? A small training library means stale and infrequent training. And content needs to be engaging, so try it yourself to get a feel for the vendor’s approach. Consider asking multiple employees what they consider engaging in training courses. You’ll get a more comprehensive picture if you poll more team members.
Employees, including individual contributors, are one of the weakest links in enterprise cybersecurity. They’re susceptible to malicious links in emails, spoofed phone calls, and unsecured websites. Some of those scenarios happen because employees have never been taught to spot fakes and because recent cyberattack tactics can be highly sophisticated. A simple employee mistake could cost your business thousands or millions of dollars. When done consistently and engagingly, cybersecurity training reduces these risks.
A thorough training program should include comprehensive coverage of common phishing trends, including email, text, and phone phishing. But make sure you also cover strong password policies and password protection, for example. What are a few basic security health items that your team can cover? It’s also important to have individual discussions with both new and tenured employees about those items.
Developing a security culture in your organization won’t just happen by assigning training videos to your employees. Your leaders have to promote open communication too. Talk with your team regularly, making sure frank conversations about security are commonplace. The more your employees expect these discussions, the less likely they’ll be to blatantly break your business’s security restrictions.
Over the past decade, training products have increased in both number and sophistication, helping businesses keep a single phishing email or malicious link from turning into a crippling cyberattack. As you’re looking for a solution, create a short list of a few products that seem like a potential fit. Then take advantage of demos and free trials so you have a better idea of what employees’ experience will be.
When you have the right training solutions for your organization, it’s also important to start training employees immediately. On the first day a new employee starts with your business, they’re susceptible to phishing attacks and attempted credential theft. By implementing cybersecurity training for your employees early and often, you’re better able to protect your organization.
While training and technology are great tools, they’re not enough to protect your team on their own. Read more about the importance of a business cybersecurity culture next.
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