Security Awareness Training Prioritization
Security Awareness Training Prioritization in the context of cybersecurity refers to the strategic process of dynamically allocating training resources and content based on the identified, quantified, and high-risk vulnerabilities of an organization's human attack surface. Instead of relying on a generic annual training module, this approach ensures the right employees receive the most relevant training content at the most critical time.
Core Principles of Prioritization
Effective prioritization uses intelligence to drive training needs, addressing risks before they are exploited.
Risk-Based Tiers: Employees and departments are categorized into high-risk tiers based on their exposure and access.
High-Risk Targets: Executives, IT administrators, and finance personnel are prioritized because they possess access to high-value assets and are frequently targeted by Executive Extortion and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks.
High-Exposure Targets: Employees whose credentials have been leaked externally or who have a large, exposed social media footprint are prioritized for training on phishing and credential hygiene.
Threat-Informed Content: The training curriculum is updated dynamically based on real-world external threat intelligence.
Example: If external monitoring detects a surge in typosquatting domain registrations, the training is immediately updated to show employees examples of look-alike domains and how to report them.
Example: If external intelligence confirms a specific type of Social Engineering Reconnaissance Mapping is targeting the organization, training is tailored to coach employees on safeguarding the specific PII that the attacker is harvesting.
Measurable Impact: The success of the prioritization is measured by tracking the Human Attack Surface Delta—a decrease in the exposure of high-risk PII and a reduction in click-through rates on simulated phishing attacks for the targeted groups.
By prioritizing training based on quantified external risk, organizations ensure that limited resources are focused on the human vulnerabilities most likely to be exploited for Initial Access.
ThreatNG directly supports Security Awareness Training Prioritization by providing the external intelligence necessary to transform generic training into a quantifiable, risk-based program. By identifying who is exposed and how they are being targeted, ThreatNG enables security teams to focus resources on the highest-risk human assets and train them against the most immediate threats.
ThreatNG's Role in Training Prioritization
External Discovery
ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery with no connectors, which is the foundational step for identifying and mapping employees who need training.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: The discovery process uncovers all Archived Web Pages. An attacker maps employee roles by finding old directories or press releases in archives that contain Emails and User Names. ThreatNG finds this PII first, making the organization aware of which employees have a legacy public footprint and therefore require prioritized training on personal digital hygiene.
External Assessment
ThreatNG's security ratings quantify the risks associated with human-centric security failures, providing the measurable data needed to prioritize which employees or departments require immediate training.
Data Leak Susceptibility Security Rating (A-F): This rating is heavily influenced by Compromised Credentials.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG's assessment finds a large number of employee credentials present in its Compromised Credentials intelligence. This finding immediately prioritizes those specific employees for training on password reuse and credential hygiene, as they are the most vulnerable to Account Takeover (ATO)—a direct result of ineffective defense.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility Security Rating (A-F): This rating is based on findings like Email Format Guessability and Domain Name Permutations.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG confirms, via Email Intelligence, that the organization has high Email Format Guessability. This quantifies the risk that any employee can be targeted via spear-phishing. This finding mandates that all employees receive prioritized training specifically on identifying spear-phishing lures that use their names and the correct email format.
Cyber Risk Exposure Security Rating (A-F): This rating assesses human-enabled exposures, such as missing WHOIS privacy.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG finds an executive's PII is exposed due to missing WHOIS privacy. This quantifies the Executive Extortion Risk. The poor rating immediately prioritizes this high-value individual for one-on-one training on securing personal domains and managing their external identity.
Reporting
ThreatNG's reporting translates the external risks into action plans that guide the training program's curriculum and delivery.
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping: ThreatNG automatically correlates human-centric findings (like leaked credentials or exposure of sensitive code) with the Initial Access technique in the MITRE ATT&CK framework. This provides the threat-informed content for training, explaining how the human is the entry point and what specific TTPs they need to defend against.
Prioritized Reports: These reports categorize findings as High, Medium, or Low risk, allowing the security team to focus training resources on the exposed assets that pose the greatest threat.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous Monitoring of the external attack surface ensures that the training prioritization remains current and adaptive to real-time changes in the Human Attack Surface Delta.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: A new employee is onboarded, and their credentials are leaked a month later due to a personal breach. Continuous monitoring detects the new Compromised Credentials instantly. This event immediately reprioritizes that specific individual and all new hires for urgent training on credential hygiene.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's modules provide the specific, granular intelligence needed to identify and group employees based on their external risk factors.
Social Media Investigation Module: This module proactively safeguards against targeted attacks on executives and employees (the Human Attack Surface).
LinkedIn Discovery: This module specifically identifies employees most susceptible to social engineering attacks. This list is the precise grouping that should receive prioritized training on social media hygiene and recognizing pretexting attempts.
Username Exposure: This conducts a Passive Reconnaissance scan for usernames across high-risk platforms like GitHub and Pastebin. Employees found to have active professional aliases on these sites are prioritized for training on Sensitive Code Exposure and data leakage prevention.
Online Sharing Exposure: This module tracks organizational presence within online code-sharing and file-sharing platforms.
Example in Detail: ThreatNG finds an employee has uploaded a document containing internal vendor names to a file-sharing site. This finding identifies the employee as a high-risk liability who needs immediate, prioritized training on controlling the outflow of sensitive company information.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)
The intelligence repositories provide the real-world evidence required to prove and quantify the failure points, driving the highest level of training prioritization.
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): This repository is the definitive source for measuring the volume and identity of leaked passwords. The quantity of unique emails found in this cache is the most objective metric for prioritizing training focused on eliminating password reuse.
Dark Web (DarCache Dark Web): This monitors for explicit organizational mentions and associated ransomware events.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: ThreatNG discovers chatter on a dark web forum discussing plans to use a specific, high-value executive's name for an upcoming Extortion attempt. This immediate threat prioritizes the executive for crisis management training.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's external metrics on human exposure are integrated with internal platforms to automate the training prioritization and delivery.
Cooperation with Security Awareness Training Platforms: When ThreatNG reports a list of high-risk employees from the Compromised Credentials module, this data can be sent to a complementary Security Awareness Training Platform. This integration automatically enrolls the affected employees in a targeted course on password hygiene and spear-phishing recognition, ensuring the most vulnerable users receive the most critical training content.
Cooperation with HR/IT Ticketing Systems: A finding from the LinkedIn Discovery module identifying an employee highly susceptible to social engineering can be pushed to the IT Ticketing System. This can trigger a low-friction internal notification to the employee's manager to schedule a personalized security check-in, ensuring the prioritization effort reaches the individual level.
