Security Staff Acquisition & Development, Content

Affordable Security Training for Every MSP Employee?

What if there was affordable security training for every MSP and all of their employees? That's the goal of Level Up, an MSP security training challenge organized by The CyberCall's Andrew Morgan and Black Hills Information Security's John Strand.

Indeed, Strand will deliver a Core SOC Skills Course in a virtual "pay what you can afford" format for MSPs and their employees. Multiple MSP-focused technology companies -- including Blackpoint Cyber, Cisco Systems, Datto, Huntress, NinjaRMM, Pax8, Perch, Skout Cybersecurity, Sophos and ThreatLocker -- are backing the training effort.

The group's goal is for Black Hills Information Security to train 500 MSPs in the next 30 days. Those MSPs, in turn, will strive to protect 500,000 workers across 15,000 SMBs (small and midsize businesses). The effort won't stop there: Morgan and Strand say the training is designed to be affordable and easily consumed for all MSP employees.

Details are in this video interview featuring MSSP Alert's Joe Panettieri interviewing Strand and Morgan:

Video link

The conversation covers:

  • 0:00 - Introductions
  • 0:31 - Who is John Strand?: Beyond penetration testing and security assessments.
  • 1:28 - Who is Andrew Morgan?: Building The CyberCall community & more.
  • 3:00 - Security training's next step: An option for every MSP.
  • 5:30 - Filling the gap between vendor-led security training and multi-day face-to-face (F2F) training.
  • 7:30 - Training for MSP SOC (security operations center) analysts as well as the MSP employee masses.
  • 9:34 - How the virtual security training works.
  • 11:15 - The frequency and length of virtual security training sessions.
  • 12:38 - Andrew Morgan's early role building the MSP community, and his vision to roll out security training to every MSP.
  • 14:02 - How this security training can empower traditional MSP help desks.
  • 15:55 - The security training price tag for MSPs: A "pay what you can" approach ensures new people transition into cybersecurity market.
  • 17:53 - Conclusion.
Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.