PRESS RELEASE

Pacific Grove, California, March 31, 2015 – Security Mentor, a pioneer of innovative, effective security awareness training, today announced a partnership with the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a 501c3 nonprofit organization focused on enhancing the cyber security readiness and response of public and private sector entities. Through the CIS purchasing alliance program, Security Mentor’s security awareness training service will be available for procurement at pre-negotiated group rates for state and local governments, tribal and territorial entities, and public education institutions.

“Our mission at CIS is to help organizations improve their cyber security, and end-user training is a critical layer of defense, as attackers frequently target employees as a means to gain access to an organization,” said William Pelgrin, CIS CEO.  “We thank Security Mentor for their willingness to partner with us and make it possible for public sector entities to strengthen their cyber security readiness by implementing essential security training in a cost-effective way.”

In fact, training and awareness has been one of the top cyber initiatives for state Chief Information Officers.  In the 2014 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study, training and awareness was the second highest cybersecurity initiative for 2014.  Recognizing this need, Security Mentor has worked closely with state and local governments to train government employees on critical security topics, currently providing training for the states of Maryland and Michigan, as well as county and local entities.  The training has been so successful that Elliott Schlanger, the then Director of Cybersecurity and Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Maryland, stated that “Every month that employees take training is a significant step towards preventing a breach.”

“As a partner with the Center for Internet Security, we are delighted to work with them and be able to extend our security awareness training offering to CIS members,” said Marie White, CEO and President, Security Mentor.  Through this partnership, we will help CIS fulfill its goal of enhancing the cyber security readiness of government and public education institutions by creating security savvy employees.”

The key to effectively training employees is Security Mentor’s groundbreaking and award-winning security awareness training model.  With only 10 minutes per month, interactive, highly engaging lessons teach critical security skills in an easy-to-understand, fun format that drives real behavior change.  Flash-based lessons are instructionally designed with interactive content that promotes learning by doing.  Real-world scenarios, current security content and compelling, interactive games make training memorable and relevant for employees.  The result is engaged employees that value security.

Security Mentor provides industry-leading, innovative security awareness training to businesses of all sizes, with a focus on medium and large enterprises, as well as government, non-profit, and educational organizations.  Flexible delivery options include training provided as a service from Security Mentor's Cloud Learning Management System (LMS) with optional Federated Single Sign-on (SSO) support, or as SCORM-compliant modules that the customer can self-host on their own LMS.  For more information, visit the company’s website, and follow the company on Twitter at @SecurityMentor and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/security-mentor.