Amazon releases free cybersecurity awareness training

As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Amazon has announced that it will make the same cybersecurity awareness training materials the company uses for employees available free of charge to businesses and individuals around the world, including in Canada. The training will be accessible starting on October 26th through the company’s site.

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.

“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, in a company statement.

“Education is the key to helping people and organizations 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.”

The training helps users identify the most common social exploits for businesses and individuals and covers secure communication, phishing, social engineering, physical security, and data privacy, among other topics. Amazon’s training was designed to be digestible, succinct, and entertaining to keep learners highly engaged and 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 can be utilized in two ways: it will be available for businesses and organizations to integrate into their own learning management systems (LMS).  For individuals and small businesses without an LMS, the training is also hosted by Amazon on the microsite and can be completed there.