The 7 best human firewall training platforms in 2024

With 95% of all hacks and data leaks being caused by human error, your organization should aim to build a strong human firewall.

While putting cybersecurity technology in place has its challenges, there is nothing quite as difficult as creating a security awareness culture. That’s why many organizations use a human firewall training platform to ensure their employees are able to recognize and report cyber risks.

But which platform should you choose? In this blog article, we have listed the best human firewall training platforms in 2024.

The best human firewall training platforms in 2024

1. Guardey

Guardey is a human firewall training platform that aims to make the learning experience fun for its users. It models Duolingo by using gamification elements like a leaderboard, nano learning, and achievements to create friendly competition and keep its users engaged.

The training content is short, to-the-point, and accessible. It covers a wide range of topics, from CEO fraud and spear phishing to deepfakes and password security. The weekly challenges take up to three minutes to complete, which makes for an efficient experience for end-users. On the other hand, admins have to spend very little time setting up Guardey.

Guardey has simple but effective reporting capabilities. In the product, you get real-time insights into training performance and participation. Admins also get a monthly report sent to their email address, which are used to prove compliance with information security regulations and cyber insurance policies.

Pros:

• Gamification keeps users engaged
• Not time-consuming for end-users and admins
• Affordable pricing
• Available in 10+ languages
• Good reporting features

Cons:

• Guardey purposely doesn’t use video content, which can be a con for some organizations.

Review:

“The uptick in participation has been fantastic. In most cases, when somebody gets started, they’re regularly performing the training. I think this is because Guardey doesn’t take a lot of time. And most of all, it’s fun. Employees have even set up their own little competitions internally. So we have the company-wide leaderboard, but the teams themselves are now even having their little competitions in Microsoft Teams group chats. Guardey has brought out the competitive nature in them.” – Source

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2. Ninjio

Ninjio Security Awareness is touted as an “all-in-one cybersecurity awareness training solution.” It aims to lower an organization’s cybersecurity risks via engaging training and personalized testing.

Unfortunately, some reviewers found the reporting features inadequate or difficult to use. Ninjio offers all the features you would want in a human firewall training solution, including baselining, ongoing training, continuous assessment and gamification.

Ninjio Security Awareness is customizable and offers white-labeling. Reviews are positive, with high scores across most metrics on reputable review sites. Users especially liked the high-quality videos; these are short, easy to watch and very digestible, delivering useful information in an accessible way. Production values are high, and the materials are slick. There’s also plenty of interactivity to keep learners engrossed in the content.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous evaluation.
• Slick, well-produced videos deliver information effectively.
• Gamification and interactivity.
• Rich, comprehensive content library.
• High customizability and white-labeling options.

Cons:

• Some admins struggle with the setup and reporting features.
• Training based on video can easily get long-winded and passive

Review:

“The videos and other materials are short and easy for all types of team members to understand. It’s also very helpful that the topics are often based on recent news on related events, which in my opinion helps drive the points home more. Even after its 2024 update, the backend can still be counterintuitive and challenging to navigate at times.” – G2 review

3. KnowBe4

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is a full-featured product, offering baselining, risk-scoring, ongoing training and continuous assessment. The training materials are engaging, with a rich content library, interactive elements and gamification to keep learners involved. It offers reporting features so that admins can record and demonstrate the effectiveness of the training, as well as phishing assessments to see how well learners deal with this common attack vector.

Reviewers like the automation, which delivers regular assessments and appropriate training to individual learners. They also liked the extensive content library. On the downside, some reviewers felt that the content was outdated in places. Some also expressed dissatisfaction with the reporting features. KnowBe4 has rather opaque pricing and a high cost relative to similar products.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous assessment.
• Interactivity and gamification.
• Large library of training content.

Cons:

• High cost.
• Steep learning curve for administrators.
• Some training content is outdated.
• The large content library can be overwhelming.

Review:

“The KnowBe4 platform as a whole is a great way to monitor security compliance. The available courses are broad, and would be good if you did not have access to a larger pool of better designed courses. We have found that the training courses themselves are not impressive compared to other content that is out there. The completion tracking for multiple courses has reported incorrectly to our LMS, the navigation buttons are in inconvenient places that cause user confusion, and the seriousness of these subjects is not reflected in many of the slapstick designs.” – G2 review

4. Hoxhunt

Hoxhunt bills itself as a “human risk management platform”. Its stated aim is to turn your staff into a human firewall meaning that they are prepared to spot and deal with cybersecurity risks wherever they arise. In practice, this mostly means training in phishing and other common attacks. Hoxhunt’s training can be used as a standalone product, but it’s designed to be integrated with other Hoxhunt security products.

This does have its upsides: whenever the security applications pick up on risky activity, training can be targeted towards those who took the action so that they’ll be better prepared in future. For organizations that already have good cybersecurity solutions in place, integration can be a bit of a headache. Hoxhunt’s training is generally well-received, with most users liking the content and the interactivity.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous assessment.
• Interactivity and gamification.
• Large training library.
• Integration with cybersecurity systems.
• Customizable and personalizable.

Cons:

• Some users mention that the costs are very high.
• Technical issues with automated phishing email simulations.

Review:

“It does actually make you more alert about incoming emails and phising attempts. It has a wide range of emails in a lot of sort of realistic scenarios. It is also not easy to predict when an email from Hoxhunt comes in. It’s a bit easy to cheese it, and after a while it becomes more a matter of looking for Hoxhunt emails rather than being aware of phishing and scams. It also doesn’t take into account if you are on leave and that ruins parts of the gamification of the product.” – G2 review

5. Arctic Wolf

Rather than offering a stand-alone solution, Arctic Wolf’s training software is intended to be integrated into its other security products. The training is excellent, according to the majority of users, with all of the features that you’d want in this kind of program. Arctic Wolf would be a great option for a company seeking comprehensive cybersecurity software alongside its training program — assuming, that is, that the company could afford Arctic Wolf’s high cost.

Their concierge-style services make cybersecurity and training a breeze but they don’t come cheap. Arctic Wolf has various advantages over its rivals, including ease of setup and administration (their team does most of the work), and the customer support is highly regarded. All that said, it’s a high-cost solution that won’t be a great fit for every company.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous assessment.
• Interactivity and gamification.
• Large training library.
• Integration with cybersecurity systems.

Cons:

• Some users mention that the costs are very high.
• Training is integrated with Arctic Wolf’s cybersecurity products, not a standalone solution.

Review

“Arctic Wolf was easy to set up and it’s easy to maintain. Educational sessions, quizzes, and phishing simulations are distributed regularly to employees without any action required by our internal IT team. The content is short and engaging, and the information is relevant. Updating the list of employees as folks are hired or termed can be a slow process because we need to send an updated list to the team at Arctic Wolf and they use that to update our information.” – G2 review

6. Wizer

Wizer is popular with users thanks to its fun and accessible videos. Learners enjoy these simple animated shorts, which pack plenty of information into a brief runtime. Other than its training materials, Wizer offers a lot of desirable features, like baselining, continuous assessment, interactive learning, etc. In short, it’s everything you’d want from a training solution.

The cost is reasonable, with a limited free tier available. The full package starts at $19.99 per user per year, with discounts for larger groups and reduced rates for education, non-profits and governmental organizations. Reviews are positive overall, although some found the training limited in scope. The reporting features are also lacking in depth. All in all, it’s a decent budget option but not outstanding.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous evaluation.
• Gamification and interactive content.
• Intuitive dashboards and interfaces for admins and learners.
• Engaging videos that draw on real-life incidents.
• Modest pricing.

Cons:

• Limited tools and resources compared to rival training solutions.
• In-depth reporting is unavailable.

Review:

“Wizer does a good job of conveying necessary info without taking up too much time. They also cover leading-edge topics that other platforms do not. There’s nothing I particularly dislike, although Wizer is not very different from other training platforms I have used.” – G2 review

7. Proofpoint

As with Hoxhunt and Arctic Wolf, Proofpoint’s training solution is designed to be integrated with its cybersecurity products. It’s not intended as a standalone training program. Running alongside Proofpoint’s other tools, though, it’s pretty powerful.

Proofpoint takes a holistic approach to training your human firewall meaning that training is more personalized and less overwhelming. Learners have found it simple to use and like the training materials. On the administrative end, setup and admin can be a bit of a headache. Proofpoint offers the most important features for a cybersecurity training program, as well as various reporting and analytics tools that put it ahead of the pack.

One aspect that has drawn a lot of praise is the adaptive training feature, which uses information from previous learner performance to deliver the most relevant training materials.

Pros:

• Baselining, ongoing training and continuous assessment.
• Adaptive training.
• CISO dashboard facilitates reporting and analysis.
• Integrated with Proofpoint’s cybersecurity tools.
• Large, engaging training library.

Cons:

• Not designed as a standalone training product.
• Slow loading times for some reviewers.
• Poorly organized library makes it hard to find specific materials.

Review:

“I really like the hands-on customization options that PSAT started with. The library is fairly large, and the content covers a variety of security topics. It was easy to integrate with our internal LMS, which helped with our compliance standards for training. They are moving away from self-guided customization in favor of a pay-per-customization feature. On one hand, it takes away the manual aspect of the customization, but I was disappointed to lose the hands-on feel and have additional charges. My account manager was not very knowledgeable about the product and constantly sent my questions around to other Proofpoint employees.” – G2 review

What is human firewall training?

“Human firewall” training is all about turning your staff from a potential risk factor into an active part of your cybersecurity defense. Through security awareness training, your staff can help protect your organization against all kinds of cyberattacks, from phishing to brand-new threats like infected QR codes. Armed with the right information, they become a human firewall meaning that they can participate in protecting themselves and the organization from cyber threats.

A great human firewall teaching solution equips your personnel with the skills and knowledge they need to stay safe in the face of increasingly cunning and sophisticated cyberattacks. The days when phishing emails were easy to spot and avoid are long gone. With the advent of LLMs and generative AI, phishing attacks have become more convincing and much harder to avoid. Other forms of attack, such as vishing (phishing through voice or video calls) and smishing (phishing through SMS and other text messaging systems) have sprung up.

Spear phishing, the act of targeting phishing emails towards a single high-value target, has become more prevalent. People at all levels of an organization must know what the risks are and how to respond to them. When you create a human firewall meaning well-informed staff, you can defend against all of these threats and more.

What should you consider when making a purchase decision?

• Ease of integration and administration: Some tools offer a huge content library, but also require admins to spend a lot of time on putting together custom training programs. This is fine for organizations one or multiple FTEs in place to work on security awareness, but will quickly become overwhelming for those that don’t.
• Cost and scalability: Consider the pricing and whether it aligns with your business size and budget constraints. The platform should offer scalability to accommodate personnel growth.
• The learning experience: Try using a platform that uses gamification to keep users engaged. One of the biggest challenges of any security professional is getting employees to participate in training. Using a platform that facilitates will save you a lot of trouble.
• Reporting functionality: A human firewall training platform should give you clear insights into how your firewall is developing. Are employees participating? How are they performing? Which topics require more attention? These insights are key to improve security awareness.

Conclusion

Finding a human firewall training platform that fits your organization can be a challenge. We hope this list helps in making the right decision.

If you’re looking for a solution that keeps users engaged, consider trying out Guardey. Guardey is a platform that was built on gamification to stimulate friendly competition and intrinsic motivation. You can try it out for free during a 14-day trial.