Transform Your Employees from Security Liability into Your Strongest Defense
Ninety-five percent of data breaches are caused by human error—a single click on a phishing email, a password shared over text, sensitive data sent to the wrong recipient. Petronella Technology Group's Security Awareness Training program turns your workforce into a vigilant, educated human firewall through engaging, cloud-based cybersecurity education designed for businesses across Raleigh, Durham, RTP, and the entire Triangle region of North Carolina.
Speak directly with a cybersecurity training specialist: 919-348-4912
Your Employees Are Your Biggest Cybersecurity Risk
Technology alone cannot protect your business. The most sophisticated firewall in the world is rendered useless the moment an untrained employee clicks a malicious link, opens an infected attachment, or sends personally identifiable information through an unsecured channel.
Phishing emails bypass every technical filter. Cybercriminals craft increasingly sophisticated phishing campaigns that evade spam filters and email security gateways. When a convincing phishing email reaches an employee's inbox, the only remaining defense is the employee's ability to recognize it as fraudulent. Without training, most employees cannot distinguish a legitimate email from a carefully crafted attack, putting your entire organization at risk of credential theft, ransomware deployment, and data exfiltration.
Weak and reused passwords are an open door. Despite years of public awareness campaigns, employees continue to use weak, predictable, and reused passwords across personal and business accounts. When a breach occurs at an external service—and breaches happen constantly—attackers use those compromised credentials to access your corporate systems through credential stuffing attacks. A single shared password can give an attacker access to your email, financial systems, customer data, and intellectual property.
PII mishandling invites regulatory disaster. Employees routinely handle personally identifiable information—Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver's license data, medical records—without understanding the legal and operational consequences of mishandling it. Sending PII in unencrypted emails, storing it on personal devices, or sharing it with unauthorized third parties violates regulations like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and state privacy laws, exposing your business to fines, lawsuits, and devastating reputational damage.
Social engineering exploits human trust. Attackers do not always rely on technology. Social engineering tactics—pretexting phone calls, impersonation emails, tailgating into secured areas, baiting with infected USB drives—exploit fundamental human psychology. Without structured training that teaches employees to verify identities, question unusual requests, and follow established procedures, your workforce remains vulnerable to manipulation by threat actors who understand human behavior far better than most employees understand cybersecurity.
Your employees handle sensitive data every single day. They open emails, click links, create passwords, use personal devices, and connect to networks without thinking twice about the security implications. The question is not whether your organization will face a social engineering attack. The question is whether your employees will recognize it when it happens—or whether they will hand over the keys to your kingdom without even knowing they have been deceived.
Comprehensive Security Awareness Training, Powered by PTG
Petronella Technology Group's Security Awareness Training program is a complete, cloud-based cybersecurity education platform designed to transform your employees from your organization's greatest vulnerability into your most effective line of defense. Built on more than two decades of real-world experience protecting over 2,500 companies across the Raleigh-Durham Triangle area with zero breaches among clients who implemented our full security recommendations, our training program addresses every major category of human-driven cybersecurity risk.
Our cloud-based security portal delivers engaging training content that employees complete at their own pace, from any device with internet access. The curriculum includes professionally produced video modules, interactive exercises, knowledge assessments, and real-world scenario simulations that keep employees engaged while building practical skills they will retain and apply in their daily work. Topics span the full spectrum of cybersecurity awareness, from identifying phishing emails and creating strong passwords to understanding the dangers of BYOD policies and protecting personally identifiable information.
What separates PTG's training from generic security awareness programs is our depth of content and our commitment to ongoing reinforcement. Cybersecurity threats evolve constantly, and a single annual training session is not sufficient to build lasting behavioral change. Our program includes continuous content updates reflecting the latest attack techniques, periodic simulated phishing campaigns that test employee readiness in real-world conditions, security tips and reminders delivered throughout the year, and administrator reporting dashboards that give management complete visibility into their organization's security posture.
Every employee who completes the training receives a certification of completion, providing your organization with documented proof of compliance for regulatory requirements under HIPAA, CMMC, NIST, PCI-DSS, and other frameworks. New employees are onboarded into the training system automatically, ensuring that no team member begins work without the cybersecurity knowledge necessary to protect your data, your customers, and your reputation.
How the Program Works
- 1 Baseline Assessment — We begin with a simulated phishing test and security knowledge survey to establish your organization's current risk level and identify the most critical training priorities.
- 2 Portal Deployment — Employees receive access to our cloud-based training portal with curated, self-paced modules covering phishing, passwords, PII, social engineering, BYOD, and more.
- 3 Ongoing Reinforcement — Continuous simulated phishing campaigns, security tips, micro-learning modules, and quarterly refresher content keep cybersecurity awareness active year-round.
- 4 Reporting and Compliance — Administrator dashboards track completion rates, assessment scores, and phishing simulation results with exportable reports for regulatory compliance audits.
What Your Employees Will Learn
PTG's Security Awareness Training covers every critical dimension of human cybersecurity risk through engaging, interactive content your employees will actually remember and apply.
Phishing Email Identification
Your employees will learn to spot the telltale signs of phishing emails that bypass technical filters and land directly in their inboxes. Our training covers sender address spoofing, urgency-based manipulation, malicious attachment types, deceptive URL structures, brand impersonation techniques, and business email compromise tactics. Through real-world examples drawn from actual phishing campaigns targeting Triangle-area businesses, interactive exercises that challenge employees to distinguish legitimate emails from attacks, and video walkthroughs of the anatomy of a phishing email, your workforce develops the pattern recognition skills needed to identify and report phishing attempts before they cause harm. Employees learn not just what phishing looks like, but why these attacks work psychologically—giving them the deep understanding needed to resist even novel phishing techniques they have never encountered before.
Social Engineering Defense
Social engineering attacks exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities, making them impossible to prevent with technology alone. PTG's training teaches employees to recognize and defend against the full spectrum of social engineering tactics including pretexting, where attackers fabricate scenarios to extract information; baiting, where infected USB drives or files are left for curious employees to find; tailgating, where unauthorized individuals follow employees into secured areas; and vishing, where attackers impersonate trusted parties over the phone. The training instills a verification-first mindset, teaching employees to independently confirm identities and requests through established channels before taking action, regardless of how urgent or authoritative a request appears.
Password Security & Authentication
Weak passwords remain one of the most exploited vulnerabilities in cybersecurity. Our training teaches employees the principles of creating strong, unique passwords that resist brute-force attacks, dictionary attacks, and credential stuffing. Employees learn why password reuse across personal and business accounts creates catastrophic risk, how password managers work and why they should use one, the critical importance of multi-factor authentication on every account that supports it, and the dangers of sharing credentials with colleagues even in seemingly harmless situations. The module includes practical exercises where employees evaluate password strength, set up password managers, and enable multi-factor authentication on their business accounts under guided instruction.
PII Protection & Data Handling
Personally identifiable information—Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver's license data, medical records, bank account numbers, and even combinations of names with addresses or dates of birth—requires careful handling under federal and state regulations. PTG's training teaches employees to recognize all forms of PII, understand the regulatory consequences of mishandling sensitive data, follow secure procedures for transmitting and storing PII, and recognize when a colleague or external party is requesting data in a manner that violates policy. Employees learn through scenario-based exercises that simulate common PII handling situations they encounter in their actual work environment, building practical skills that translate directly into safer daily operations.
BYOD Safety & Mobile Security
The proliferation of personal devices in the workplace introduces security risks that most employees never consider. PTG's BYOD training module educates employees on the specific dangers of accessing company data from personal smartphones, tablets, and laptops, including the risks of unsecured Wi-Fi networks at coffee shops and airports, outdated operating systems missing critical security patches, unauthorized application installations that may contain malware, lost or stolen devices providing access to corporate email and files, and the lack of encryption on personal storage. Employees learn actionable steps to secure their personal devices including enabling full-disk encryption, maintaining current operating system updates, using VPN connections for remote access, and understanding organizational BYOD policies.
Web & Link Safety
Malicious websites and deceptive links are primary delivery mechanisms for malware, credential theft, and drive-by downloads. Our training teaches employees to evaluate URLs before clicking, recognize the indicators of malicious websites including lookalike domains and missing HTTPS certificates, understand how URL shorteners can obscure dangerous destinations, and exercise caution with links received through email, text messages, social media, and messaging applications. The module covers real-world examples of watering hole attacks targeting businesses in the Raleigh-Durham area, search engine poisoning tactics that place malicious sites at the top of results, and the importance of typing known URLs directly rather than clicking links from untrusted sources.
Trusted by Over 2,500 Organizations Across North Carolina
See why businesses throughout the Triangle choose PTG for security awareness training that delivers measurable results in employee cybersecurity readiness.
Watch a Sample Training Video
This video demonstrates the quality and engagement level of PTG's security awareness training content. Our training modules are designed to be both educational and compelling, using real-world scenarios, clear explanations, and practical demonstrations that keep employees attentive and motivated to learn. Every module is crafted to build genuine understanding rather than mere checkbox compliance.
The training program is built to be engaging because disengaged employees do not learn, and employees who do not learn do not change their behavior. Traditional security training that relies on dense policy documents and monotonous slide decks fails precisely because it treats training as a compliance obligation rather than a genuine opportunity to protect the organization. PTG's approach is different: every video, quiz, and exercise is designed to make employees care about cybersecurity because they understand what is at stake for them personally and for their organization.
Can you afford NOT to train your team? The average cost of a data breach exceeds four million dollars. PTG's training program costs a fraction of that and has protected every single client we have ever served from suffering a breach.
“I would recommend Petronella Technology Group to any client who is looking for help with IT Security for their practice. I have worked with Craig with the implementation of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) in the Durham, NC area. He is extremely professional and very knowledgeable with the current technologies. Their security awareness training program transformed our staff from people who routinely clicked on suspicious emails to a team that actively identifies and reports potential threats. The cloud-based portal made it easy to roll out across our entire practice, and the administrator reporting gave us exactly the documentation we needed for our HIPAA compliance audits.”
Security Awareness Training for Every Industry
Human error does not discriminate by industry. PTG delivers tailored security awareness training across every sector in the Raleigh, Durham, and RTP region, addressing the specific threats and compliance requirements each industry faces.
Healthcare & Medical Practices
HIPAA requires workforce security training covering PHI handling, email security, and access controls. PTG's training modules address the specific scenarios healthcare employees face daily—patient data in EHR systems, faxed medical records, prescription information, and insurance data—ensuring your practice meets regulatory requirements while genuinely protecting patient privacy. Medical practices across the Raleigh-Durham Triangle trust PTG to keep their staff educated and their patient data safe.
Defense Contractors & Government
CMMC, NIST 800-171, and DFARS mandate security awareness training for all personnel with access to controlled unclassified information. PTG's training satisfies these requirements while educating employees on the unique threats facing defense contractors and government agencies near Research Triangle Park, including nation-state social engineering campaigns, supply chain attacks, and insider threat awareness.
Financial Services & Banking
Financial institutions face constant targeting by cybercriminals seeking access to accounts, wire transfer systems, and customer financial data. PTG's training for financial services covers business email compromise, wire fraud recognition, PCI-DSS cardholder data protection, SOX compliance, and the specific phishing and social engineering tactics designed to exploit the urgency and authority dynamics common in financial services environments.
Legal Firms & Professional Services
Law firms and professional services organizations hold extraordinarily sensitive client information protected by attorney-client privilege and professional ethics rules. PTG's training addresses the targeted attacks that sophisticated threat actors deploy against legal practices, teaching employees to protect confidential case files, client communications, settlement negotiations, and intellectual property from social engineering, phishing, and data exfiltration attempts.
Security Training Labels
Compliance labeling and certification documentation for your security training program.
Incident Response Training
Prepare your team to respond effectively when a security incident occurs.
Free Phishing Security Test
Discover your organization's vulnerability to phishing attacks with a complimentary assessment.
Schedule a Consultation
Speak with our team about customizing a security awareness program for your organization.
The Difference Between Checkbox Training and Genuine Protection
Most security awareness training providers deliver a generic set of videos, check a compliance box, and move on. PTG takes a fundamentally different approach because we understand that your employees' behavior is the single most important factor in whether your organization suffers a data breach. Here is what separates PTG from every other training provider in the Triangle:
- 22+ years with zero breaches among clients who implemented our full security recommendations—Our training program is built from the same real-world expertise that has protected over 2,500 companies across Raleigh, Durham, RTP, and North Carolina without a single client breach. Every module reflects actual threats we have defended against.
- Cloud-based portal with self-paced learning—Employees train on their own schedule from any device with internet access. No disruption to operations, no scheduling headaches, no travel required. The portal tracks progress automatically and sends completion reminders.
- Engaging video content, not death by PowerPoint—Our professionally produced training videos use real-world scenarios, demonstrations, and clear explanations that employees actually watch and retain. Bored employees do not learn; engaged employees become security advocates.
- Simulated phishing campaigns included—Knowledge without testing is incomplete. PTG supplements training with realistic simulated phishing campaigns that measure whether employees apply what they learned in real-world conditions, identifying individuals who need additional reinforcement.
- Continuously updated content—Cybersecurity threats evolve weekly. PTG's training content is continually updated to reflect the latest phishing techniques, social engineering tactics, malware variants, and regulatory changes, ensuring your employees are trained against current threats rather than last year's attacks.
- Compliance-ready reporting and certificates—Every employee receives a training completion certificate, and administrators access dashboards with exportable reports that satisfy audit requirements for HIPAA, CMMC, NIST, PCI-DSS, SOX, and other regulatory frameworks.
Common Sense Is Not Common Practice
You might think the following items are obvious. Think again. You would be surprised how many employees do not know or practice these simple procedures:
- ✗ How to identify phishing emails and distinguish them from legitimate communications
- ✗ How to identify malicious website links before clicking on them
- ✗ Not to send PII (SSN, credit card, driver's license) in unencrypted emails
- ✗ The importance of creating strong, unique passwords for every account
- ✗ Not to share passwords with colleagues, even for convenience
- ✗ The dangers of posting PII on social media websites
- ✗ How to protect portable media and mobile devices containing company data
- ✗ The risks of using personal devices with company data without proper safeguards
Measurable Risk Reduction
Security Awareness Training Questions Answered
Get answers to the most common questions about PTG's security awareness training program for businesses across the Triangle region of North Carolina.
Security awareness training is a structured educational program that teaches employees how to recognize and respond to cybersecurity threats such as phishing emails, social engineering attacks, malicious links, and data handling violations. With 95% of data breaches caused by human error, businesses across Raleigh, Durham, RTP, and the broader Triangle region need security awareness training to transform their workforce from a liability into an active line of defense. PTG's cloud-based training portal delivers engaging, self-paced modules that cover phishing identification, password security, PII protection, BYOD safety, and dozens of other critical topics, ensuring your employees develop the habits and knowledge necessary to protect sensitive company and customer data.
PTG's security awareness training includes in-depth phishing education modules with real-world examples, interactive quizzes, and video demonstrations that teach employees to identify suspicious emails, fraudulent sender addresses, malicious attachments, and deceptive links. We complement the training with simulated phishing campaigns through our free phishing security test that send realistic but harmless phishing emails to your workforce, measuring who clicks, who reports, and who ignores. This combination of education and real-world testing builds lasting behavioral change and dramatically reduces the likelihood of a successful phishing attack on your organization.
PTG's training covers a comprehensive range of cybersecurity topics including phishing email identification, malicious website and link recognition, personally identifiable information (PII) protection, strong password creation and management, social engineering tactics and defense, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) dangers and policies, Wi-Fi security and public network risks, physical device protection, phone scams, internal and external threat awareness, email security best practices, social media safety, data classification and handling, regulatory compliance requirements, and incident reporting procedures. Content is continually updated to address emerging threats and evolving attack techniques targeting businesses in the Raleigh-Durham Triangle area and beyond.
PTG's security awareness training is primarily delivered through a cloud-based security portal that allows employees to complete training modules at their own pace from any device with internet access. This approach is ideal for organizations with remote, hybrid, or multi-location workforces across the Triangle area and beyond. The platform includes engaging video content, interactive exercises, knowledge assessments, completion certificates, and administrator reporting dashboards. For organizations that prefer supplemental in-person training or executive-level security briefings, PTG also offers on-site sessions at your offices throughout the Raleigh, Durham, and Research Triangle Park region.
PTG recommends comprehensive security awareness training upon hire with ongoing reinforcement at least quarterly, supplemented by monthly micro-learning modules and periodic simulated phishing tests throughout the year. Regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA, CMMC, and PCI-DSS often mandate annual security training at minimum, but annual training alone is insufficient to build lasting security habits. Continuous reinforcement through short, focused modules, security tips, reminders, and real-world simulation exercises keeps cybersecurity awareness top of mind and adapts to the rapidly evolving threat landscape that businesses in North Carolina face.
Yes. PTG's cloud-based training portal includes comprehensive administrator reporting and tracking capabilities. Managers and IT administrators can view real-time dashboards showing which employees have completed training, their assessment scores, areas of weakness, and overall organizational security posture trends. The platform generates completion certificates for each employee, which serve as compliance documentation for audits. Automated reminders are sent to employees who have not completed their assigned training modules, and detailed reports can be exported for regulatory compliance documentation required by frameworks such as HIPAA, CMMC, NIST, and PCI-DSS.
PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information and includes any data that can identify a specific individual, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, driver's license numbers, medical records, bank account information, email addresses combined with names, and physical addresses. Employees handle PII routinely, and improper handling such as sending Social Security numbers via unencrypted email, leaving documents visible on screens, or sharing data with unauthorized parties can lead to devastating data breaches, regulatory penalties, lawsuits, and reputational damage. PTG's training teaches employees to recognize all forms of PII, understand handling requirements, and follow secure procedures for every interaction with sensitive data.
Yes. PTG offers a free phishing security test that allows your organization to gauge its vulnerability to phishing attacks before committing to a full training program. This simulated phishing campaign sends realistic but harmless phishing emails to your employees and tracks who opens them, who clicks on embedded links, and who enters credentials on fake login pages. The results provide a clear, data-driven picture of your organization's human risk factor and serve as a powerful motivator for leadership to invest in comprehensive security awareness training. Call 919-348-4912 to schedule your complimentary assessment.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies introduce significant security risks because personal devices often lack the security controls present on company-managed equipment. PTG's training educates employees on the dangers of using personal smartphones, tablets, and laptops for work, including unsecured Wi-Fi connections, outdated operating systems, missing encryption, unauthorized app installations, and physical device theft. Employees learn actionable steps for securing personal devices, separating work and personal data, using approved VPN connections, enabling device encryption, and understanding what actions to take if a personal device containing company data is lost or compromised.
PTG's security awareness training is priced based on the number of employees and the scope of services required. We offer flexible options ranging from individual licenses to enterprise-wide deployments with full management, simulated phishing campaigns, and compliance reporting. Most small to mid-sized businesses in the Raleigh-Durham Triangle area find that the cost of training is a fraction of the potential financial impact of a data breach, which averages over four million dollars per incident. Contact PTG at 919-348-4912 for a customized quote tailored to your organization's size and training requirements.
Ready to Turn Your Employees into a Human Firewall?
Start with a free phishing security test to see exactly how vulnerable your organization is today. Then let Petronella Technology Group deploy a complete security awareness training program that transforms your workforce into your strongest defense. With 22+ years protecting Triangle businesses and zero breaches among clients who implemented our full security recommendations, PTG has the expertise and the track record to make your employees security-smart. No obligation, no pressure—just proven protection from the team that has never let a client down.
Prefer to talk now? Call us directly at 919-348-4912