Security awareness training is an essential element in preparing a workforce to identify social engineering attempts, discern whether an email is real or a phish, and to be alert to security threats hiding in plain sight, among others. Offering security awareness training is a standard recommendation for all employees, although clearly security awareness training alone is insufficient to stem the security threats at play. One of my colleagues almost fell for the iTunes gift card scam several months ago, in part because no-one at her school had discussed common scams.

Earlier this week I was browsing the web site of KnowBe4 – a provider of security awareness training resources – and was stunned (in a good way) at the incredible range of resources on offer. It’s not just written datasheets and colourful posters. Among its more than 900 resources, KnowBe4 offers a 12-episode video series about insider threats called The Inside Man.

The Inside Man is KnowBe4’s first custom network-quality video series that delivers an entertaining movie-like experience for your users and makes learning how to make smarter security decisions fun and engaging. From social engineering and passwords, to social media and travel, The Inside Man reveals how easy it can be for an outsider to penetrate your organization’s security controls and network.

Meet Mark…the star of the series who is working at his new job as an IT security analyst, but no one suspects that he’s already inside the company’s most secure systems or that sinister forces are pulling his strings.

Will he complete his mission to bring down the company? Or will these new friendships with co-workers bring him out of the dark web and into the light?

The 12-episodes run for 80 minutes in total – it’s a production-quality piece of work – and I watched them one after the other. All in one afternoon – when I should have been doing something else. That’s the highest kudos I can offer.

If you don’t have an approach for security awareness training yet (and even if you do), check out KnowBe4.