Security Awareness Training for Raleigh Businesses
Human error drives over ninety percent of data breaches. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. delivers security awareness training programs tailored for North Carolina businesses, combining interactive modules, realistic phishing simulations, and compliance-specific content that transforms your Raleigh workforce from your biggest vulnerability into your strongest defense layer.
Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Zero Breaches
The Business Case for Security Training in Raleigh
Technology alone cannot stop social engineering. The Triangle's fast-growing workforce needs targeted training that addresses the specific threats facing NC organizations.
Phishing is the Top Attack Vector
Over seventy percent of breaches begin with a phishing email or social-engineering attack. Raleigh organizations with untrained employees are statistically more likely to fall victim. Trained employees who recognize and report suspicious emails reduce successful phishing attacks by up to seventy-five percent.
Compliance Mandate
HIPAA requires workforce security training under 164.308(a)(5). CMMC Level 2 mandates awareness training under AT.L2-3.2.1 and AT.L2-3.2.2. PCI DSS requires security awareness education. The FTC Safeguards Rule requires employee training for financial institutions. NC's "reasonable security" standard implicitly includes employee education.
Insurance Premium Reduction
Cyber-insurance carriers increasingly require documented security awareness training as a condition of coverage. Organizations with active training programs and phishing simulations qualify for lower premiums because underwriters recognize trained employees as a measurable risk-reduction control.
Culture of Security
Training transforms security from an IT problem into a shared organizational responsibility. When every employee from the front desk to the C-suite understands their role in protecting data, your entire organization becomes more resilient against the social-engineering tactics that defeat purely technical defenses.
Why Raleigh's Workforce Needs Targeted Security Training
Raleigh's economy is powered by knowledge workers. NC State University produces thousands of graduates annually who join the Triangle's technology, healthcare, financial services, and government workforces. Companies relocate to the area at a pace that consistently ranks the Raleigh-Cary metro among the fastest-growing in America. That growth means a constant influx of new employees who bring different security awareness levels and must be rapidly onboarded into your organization's security culture. A single employee who clicks a well-crafted phishing email can give an attacker the credentials they need to bypass every firewall and endpoint tool your organization has deployed.
North Carolina law and federal regulations mandate that businesses train their workforces on security. The NC Identity Theft Protection Act's requirement for "reasonable security procedures" has been interpreted by regulators to include employee training as a baseline control. HIPAA's Security Rule specifically requires covered entities and business associates to implement a security awareness and training program for all workforce members. CMMC Level 2 requires awareness training under AT.L2-3.2.1 (role-based security awareness) and AT.L2-3.2.2 (literacy training and awareness). PCI DSS mandates security awareness education as part of Requirement 12. The FTC Safeguards Rule, which applies to financial institutions and their service providers, requires employee training as a program element.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has trained workforces across the Research Triangle since 2002, delivering programs that combine engaging content with measurable outcomes. Our training incorporates AI-generated phishing simulations that mimic the exact social-engineering techniques threat actors use against Raleigh organizations. Our AI-powered platform adapts training content to each employee's role, risk profile, and previous performance, ensuring that the accounting clerk who handles wire transfers receives different training than the developer writing code. Craig Petronella's 30+ years of cybersecurity experience and our team's understanding of the Triangle business landscape ensure training content addresses the real threats facing your specific industry.
Security Awareness Training Programs
Comprehensive training that satisfies compliance requirements while genuinely changing employee behavior
Simulated Phishing Campaigns
Simulated phishing is the most effective tool for building employee resilience against real attacks. Our AI-generated phishing campaigns replicate the exact techniques that threat actors deploy against Triangle organizations: Business Email Compromise (BEC) targeting accounts payable, spear-phishing impersonating executives, credential-harvesting pages mimicking Microsoft 365 login portals, and voice phishing (vishing) calls impersonating IT help desks or vendors.
Campaigns run monthly with increasing sophistication to challenge employees progressively. Each simulation tracks open rates, click rates, credential-submission rates, and report rates. Employees who fall for simulated phishing receive immediate, non-punitive training that explains what they missed and how to recognize similar attacks. Over time, click rates typically decline from thirty percent to under five percent, representing a measurable reduction in organizational risk.
Role-Based Training Modules
Generic security training fails because it treats the receptionist and the systems administrator as having identical risk profiles. Our role-based program delivers targeted content based on job function and data-access level. Executives receive training on BEC, CEO fraud, and board-level security governance. Finance teams learn to verify wire-transfer requests and recognize invoice-manipulation schemes. IT staff receive technical training on secure configuration, privileged-access management, and incident-detection procedures.
Healthcare workers at Raleigh practices and hospitals receive HIPAA-specific training on PHI handling, minimum necessary access, and breach reporting. Defense contractor employees learn CUI marking, handling, and incident-reporting procedures required by CMMC. Developers receive secure-coding training covering OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities and supply-chain security practices.
Compliance-Specific Training Content
Our training library includes modules specifically designed to satisfy compliance requirements. HIPAA training covers the Privacy Rule, Security Rule, breach notification obligations, minimum necessary standard, and proper PHI handling. CMMC training addresses CUI identification, marking, handling, storage, and incident reporting as required by NIST 800-171. PCI DSS training covers cardholder data handling, social engineering awareness, and physical security for payment environments.
Each module includes knowledge assessments that document employee comprehension. Completion records provide the compliance evidence that auditors, examiners, and regulators expect to see. Our learning management system tracks individual progress, sends automated reminders for overdue training, and generates compliance reports that map training completion to specific regulatory requirements.
AI-Adaptive Training and Behavioral Analytics
Our AI-powered training platform analyzes individual employee behavior patterns to customize training intensity and focus areas. Employees who consistently identify phishing simulations receive less frequent basic training and more challenging advanced scenarios. Employees who struggle with specific attack types receive targeted reinforcement modules that address their particular weaknesses.
Behavioral analytics identify organizational patterns: departments with higher click rates, times of day when employees are most susceptible, and attack types that are most effective against your workforce. These insights inform training program adjustments and help managers address team-specific risk factors. Our AI analytics dashboard provides real-time visibility into your organization's human-risk posture with trending metrics that demonstrate training effectiveness over time.
New Hire Onboarding and Annual Refresher Programs
Raleigh's rapid employment growth means new hires arrive continuously, each representing a potential security gap until trained. Our onboarding program integrates with your HR workflow to automatically enroll new employees in baseline security training within their first week. Modules cover acceptable use policies, password management, phishing recognition, physical security, data handling, and incident-reporting procedures specific to your organization.
Annual refresher training keeps security awareness current as threats evolve. Our content team updates modules throughout the year to address emerging attack techniques, regulatory changes, and lessons learned from real-world incidents. Annual training campaigns include updated phishing simulations, new compliance content, and knowledge assessments that ensure retention.
Executive and Board-Level Security Briefings
C-suite executives and board members are high-value targets for Business Email Compromise, whale phishing, and impersonation attacks. They also bear fiduciary responsibility for organizational security posture. Our executive training program delivers focused briefings that address the specific threats targeting senior leaders, the regulatory obligations executives must understand, and the governance practices that demonstrate due diligence to shareholders, regulators, and insurers.
Board-level briefings translate technical risk into business language that directors can act on. We present threat-landscape summaries, phishing-simulation results, training-completion metrics, and risk-score trends that give boards the security visibility they need to fulfill their oversight responsibilities under NC corporate governance standards and federal regulations.
From Assessment to Security Culture
A structured approach to building human-layer security
Baseline Assessment
We deploy an initial phishing simulation to measure your workforce's current susceptibility. Click rates, credential-submission rates, and reporting rates establish the baseline against which all future training effectiveness will be measured.
Program Design and Deployment
Based on baseline results, compliance requirements, and industry-specific threats, we design a customized training program with role-based modules, phishing-simulation schedules, and compliance training mapped to your regulatory obligations. The program launches through our learning management platform with automated enrollment.
Continuous Simulation and Reinforcement
Monthly phishing simulations with escalating sophistication test and reinforce learning. AI analytics identify struggling employees and deploy targeted remediation training. Micro-learning modules delivered via email keep security top-of-mind between formal training sessions.
Reporting and Program Optimization
Quarterly reports track click-rate trends, training completion rates, compliance status, and risk-score improvements. We present findings to your leadership team and adjust program content, frequency, and focus areas based on measured results and evolving threats.
Raleigh's Security Training Experts Since 2002
Real-World Expertise
Craig Petronella's 30+ years investigating breaches means our training content is built from actual attack techniques, not theoretical scenarios. When we teach employees about BEC, we draw from real incidents we have responded to in Triangle organizations.
AI-Powered Personalization
Our AI platform adapts training to individual employees based on their role, behavior patterns, and simulation performance. This targeted approach delivers better outcomes than one-size-fits-all programs while reducing total training time.
Multi-Framework Compliance
One training program satisfies HIPAA, CMMC, PCI DSS, FTC Safeguards, SOC 2, and NC regulatory requirements. Our learning management system generates compliance reports mapped to each framework, eliminating audit scrambles.
Measurable Results
We track quantifiable metrics: phishing click rates, training completion, knowledge-assessment scores, and incident-reporting rates. Our clients typically see a sixty to seventy-five percent reduction in phishing susceptibility within the first year of program deployment.
Security Awareness Training Questions
How often should employees receive security training?
We recommend formal training modules quarterly with monthly phishing simulations and micro-learning reinforcements between sessions. Compliance frameworks generally require annual training at minimum, but quarterly cadence produces significantly better behavior change. New hires should receive training within their first week.
What happens when an employee fails a phishing simulation?
They receive immediate, non-punitive educational feedback explaining the indicators they missed and how to recognize similar attacks. Repeated failures trigger enrollment in targeted remediation training. We strongly discourage punitive approaches because they create a culture of fear that discourages employees from reporting real suspicious emails, which is the opposite of what you want.
Does the training satisfy HIPAA requirements?
Yes. Our HIPAA training modules cover all workforce training requirements under the Security Rule 164.308(a)(5), including security reminders, log-in monitoring procedures, password management, and procedures for guarding against malicious software. Completion records and assessment scores provide the documented evidence that HHS OCR expects during compliance investigations.
How does AI personalize the training experience?
Our AI platform analyzes each employee's role, data-access level, simulation history, and knowledge-assessment results to build an individual risk profile. High-risk employees receive more frequent simulations and advanced training content. Employees who demonstrate strong awareness receive less intrusive training that respects their time while maintaining engagement.
How much time does training take per employee?
Initial onboarding training takes approximately sixty to ninety minutes. Quarterly modules require fifteen to thirty minutes each. Monthly micro-learning reinforcements take three to five minutes. Annual total training investment averages four to six hours per employee. This modest time commitment delivers measurable risk reduction that far outweighs the productivity cost.
Can training be customized for our industry?
Absolutely. We tailor phishing-simulation templates, training scenarios, and compliance content to your specific industry. Healthcare clients receive simulated phishing mimicking EHR vendors and insurance portals. Defense contractors receive CUI-handling scenarios. Financial institutions receive wire-fraud and account-takeover simulations. Custom content ensures training addresses the actual threats your employees face daily.
What metrics do you track to measure training effectiveness?
We track phishing simulation click rates, credential-submission rates, suspicious-email reporting rates, training-module completion rates, knowledge-assessment scores, time-to-completion, and repeat-offender rates. These metrics are presented in quarterly dashboards that show trends over time and benchmark your organization against industry averages for Raleigh-area companies.
Do you offer in-person training sessions?
Yes. While our primary platform is online for scalability and tracking, we offer in-person workshops, lunch-and-learn sessions, and executive briefings for Raleigh-area organizations. In-person sessions are particularly effective for tabletop exercises, incident-response training, and executive security awareness programs where interactive discussion adds significant value.
Your Employees Are Either Your Strongest Defense or Your Biggest Vulnerability
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has trained thousands of Triangle employees to recognize and report cyber threats. Start building your security culture today with a program designed for your industry, your compliance requirements, and your workforce.
Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Raleigh, NC