Amazon Releases Free Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Amazon is providing businesses and individuals around the world with free access to the same cybersecurity awareness training the company’s employees use. 

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy attended the White House’s Cyber Summit with President Joe Biden and other tech leaders in August to discuss how the private and public sectors could work together to improve cybersecurity.

During the meeting, Jassy announced that Amazon would make available the cybersecurity awareness training the company uses with its employees to businesses and individuals around the world—at no cost.

Amazon’s cybersecurity awareness training is now available online.

“Individuals and companies of all shapes and sizes are grappling with an increase in attempts at social engineering and phishing, tactics that may seem unsophisticated but can actually lead to large incidents,” said Steve Schmidt, Amazon Web Services’ chief information security officer.

“Education is the key to helping people and organisations better identify these threats and keep themselves protected. Amazon has seen the real impact and value of our cybersecurity awareness training, and we’re proud to share the program with the public.”

Keeping companies and employees safe

The training includes identifying the most common social exploits for businesses and individuals. The content includes how to consider managing secure communication, phishing, social engineering, physical security, and data privacy, among other topics. Even when cybersecurity training resources are available and provide the right information, people often lack the time or interest to invest in an hours-long course.

To meet that challenge, Amazon’s training was designed to be digestible, succinct, and entertaining to keep learners highly engaged. The courses also help people interact with content aligned with seven global compliance frameworks, including frameworks published by the National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

Designed for inclusion and accessibility

The curriculum was designed using best practices for inclusion and accessibility to ensure all learners can connect with the security content and bring what they learn into their daily lives. The training consistently receives high satisfaction ratings from Amazon employees, with an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars.

The training will be available globally, with content available in English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, and American Sign Language (ASL). American Sign Language is also offered with English, Spanish, or French text and captions.

There are two ways to utilise cybersecurity awareness training:

— Learning management system: The training is available for businesses and organisations to integrate into their own learning management systems (LMS).

— Online training: For individuals and small businesses without an LMS, the training is also hosted by Amazon on the Learn Security website, where the courses can also be completed.

Learn more about the course and find out how to take the training for free.