Microsoft announces partnership with SANS Institute

by Contributed | Nov 3, 2022 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is pleased to announce a partnership with SANS Institute to deliver a new series of computer-based training (CBT) modules in the Attack Simulation Training service. The modules will focus on IT systems and network administrators. Microsoft is excited to collaborate with a recognized market leader in cyber security training to bring our customers training that can help our customers address a critical challenge in the modern threat landscape: educating and upskilling security professionals.

“We salute Microsoft for recognizing the requirement to direct security awareness training towards IT System and Network Administrators since our experience tells us that it is precisely these users who are more frequently targeted because of their privileged access.”

Carl Marrelli, Director of Business Development at the SANS Institute

We chose SANS Institute for its long track record of success in technical education and for its focus on an audience that Defender for Office 365 wants to support. Technical education is hard, and cyber security is even more difficult to deliver effectively. SANS Institute’s approach was best-in-class, and we think our customers are going to find this content very valuable for their organizational upskilling.

Today our Attack Simulation Training provides a robust catalog of end-user training experiences, soon to be expanding beyond social engineering topics. This partnership with SANS will help us expand our offerings to cover an important and challenging topic area. IT system administrators and network administrators have to acquire and use a broad and deep set of complex cyber security information in order to successfully protect their organizations. It can be difficult to find good training and Microsoft believes that this new set of training modules will help all of our organizations, large and small, upskill their administrative staff. These new courses will be self-paced, short-form, and easily digestible.

These new courses will be made available in the coming months through the Attack Simulation Training platform. They will ship alongside the rest of our catalog and can then be assigned through our training campaign workflows. Attack Simulation Training is available to organizations through Microsoft 365 E5 Security or Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2. The courses will meet all of Microsoft’s standards for accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity.

The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. Today, SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of cybersecurity training and certification to professionals in government and commercial institutions worldwide. Renowned SANS instructors teach more than 60 courses at in-person and virtual cybersecurity events and on demand. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates practitioner skills through more than 35 hands-on technical certifications in cybersecurity. SANS Security Awareness, a division of SANS, provides organizations with a complete and comprehensive security awareness solution, enabling them to manage their “human” cybersecurity risk easily and effectively. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to support and educate the global information security community.

Want to learn more about Attack Simulation Training?

Get started with the available documentation today and check out the blogs for Setting up a New Phish Simulation Program-Part One and Part Two. In addition to these, you can read more details about new features in Attack Simulation Training.