Larry Hurtado President & CEO Digital Defense

Digital Defense, Inc. (DDI), a leading provider of managed cloud-based security risk assessments, is garnering attention for their new, innovative security awareness program, SecurED, which offers an engaging and fun approach to training that in the past may have been considered routine and dull.

While most organizations place a high focus on employing safeguards for their networks, technology is only one piece of the equation. Organizations must effectively educate employees to fend off attacks which target human vulnerabilities. Recent headlines illustrate that many successful social engineering attacks are the result of lax security practices of staff, most likely the result of a lack of education.

Research surrounding the source of a security breach supports the need for effective employee training:

• 39% of incidents involved a negligent employee
• 39% of organizations had a data breach as a result of a lost or stolen mobile device, which included laptops, smartphones, tablets and USB drives that contained confidential and sensitive information

(Source:  2011 Cost of Data Breach Ponemon Institute Study, March 2012, sponsored by Symantec)

DDI has partnered with Emmy award winning comedy writer, T. Sean Shannon to develop high impact training modules that are brief, fun and engaging, facilitating employee interest and a change in behavior which makes organizations more secure.

Grace Blake, Chief Technology Officer at First Choice America Community Federal Credit Union, states, “As a long-time customer of Digital Defense, we were excited to learn about the SecurED program.  We viewed the training modules and determined that this was exactly the type of training that we needed.  Our employees should enjoy the videos, while gaining valuable knowledge on how to be our front-line defense against an information security breach.  First Choice America will benefit from a workforce that is highly prepared to combat threats to our security.”

DDI President and CEO, Larry Hurtado, comments “Most security education programs lack the Stickiness Factor required for effective retention of key security principles by all employees, putting organizations at increased risk for security breaches. Through discussions with clients, we determined that we needed to develop a more effective method for impactful security awareness education. This feedback formed the foundation for SecuED, a program developed to create a culture of security through a series of high impact training modules.” 

Founded in 1999, Digital Defense, Inc. (DDI) is the premier provider of managed security risk assessment solutions protecting billions in assets for small businesses to Fortune companies in over 65 countries. DDI’s dedicated team of experts helps organizations establish a culture of security through regular information security assessments, awareness education and Decisive Security Intelligence. This proven method bolsters the capability of organizations to reduce risk and keep information, intellectual property and reputations secure. The combination of DDI’s certified Security Analysts, patent-pending scanning technology and proprietary cloud-based vulnerability management system, Frontline Solutions Platform, delivers the most powerful assessment results and remediation management solutions possible.

Founded in 1939, First Choice America ranks as West Virginia’s largest credit union with assets in the $380 million range, and approximately 40,000 members.