Security Awareness Training Program Blueprint

Role-based curriculum

• All staff: phishing and social engineering, data handling, device hygiene, and incident reporting.
• Executives and finance: business email compromise, payment fraud verification, and deepfake voice attempts.
• Engineers: secure coding, secret management, dependency risk, and safe use of AI coding assistants.
• IT and cloud administrators: privileged access hygiene, change discipline, and identity attack paths.
• Human resources and recruiting: candidate fraud, credential handling, and sensitive record protection.
• Customer support: identity verification before account changes, and pretexting resistance.
• Privacy-facing roles: data subject rights handling and cross-border transfer rules.
• New joiners: security onboarding completed within the first week of system access.

Twelve-month calendar

1. 01Quarter one: onboarding refresh for all staff, plus a baseline phishing simulation with no prior warning.
2. 02Quarter one: executive and finance session on payment fraud and voice impersonation.
3. 03Quarter two: engineering deep dive on secrets, dependencies, and AI assistant guardrails.
4. 04Quarter two: simulated credential harvesting campaign with immediate teachable moments.
5. 05Quarter three: privacy and data handling module tied to your regulatory footprint.
6. 06Quarter three: tabletop exercise for department leads on incident escalation.
7. 07Quarter four: annual compliance module, policy re-acknowledgement, and program metrics review.
8. 08Continuous: monthly short communications tied to real incidents and current threat activity.

Metrics that show behavior change

• Phishing simulation failure rate, tracked separately for privileged users.
• Reporting rate, since the goal is faster reporting rather than only fewer clicks.
• Median time from simulated phishing delivery to first employee report.
• Repeat-failure population and the targeted coaching applied to it.
• Training completion within the required window, by department.
• Real-world incident volume attributable to human error, tracked quarter over quarter.

Evidence to retain

• Completion records with dates for every worker, including contractors.
• Signed policy acknowledgements linked to the current policy version.
• Simulation campaign reports and the remediation applied to repeat failures.
• Onboarding training evidence tied to account provisioning dates.
• Program plan, curriculum, and management review of the annual metrics.