NINJIO cybersecurity awareness training to increase your overall security posture

As the world continues to evolve in digitalization, getting updated has become even more critical. Be it, general internet users or employees. Everyone needs to get updated about the know-how of the internet so that they don’t get hacked or played upon. Security awareness training help users and employees understand their role in helping to combat information security breaches. Practical security awareness training helps employees understand proper cyber hygiene, the security risks associated with their actions, and identifying cyber-attacks they may encounter via email and the web. 

NINJIO is a company that aims to educate users by delivering premium short-length content that leverages the power of creative storytelling to inform employees about the latest scams and breaches in an intuitive way. Zack Schuler, the Founder of the company, was once reading an article about people facing challenges while understanding cybersecurity terms and is often perceived as difficult by regular users. This gave him an idea to educate people about cybersecurity but in a fun and easy way, which led to the creation of NINJIO.

He did not want to create a company that would just provide a training program for people, but instead, a business that would appeal to the masses and create more awareness. For this, he reached out to his former college friend Bill Haynes who had worked on over 70 episodes of CSI: NY and Hawaii Five-0 to create the content. He also enlisted animation expert Ben Reynolds, an award-winning creative director/designer Roy Dequina to breathe life into the idea of NINJIO.

Today, NINJIO is the leading security awareness company that educates employees of organizations on how to become more secure through its micro-learning animated and security stories that are not just engaging but are also based or inspired by real companies and their security breaches. “NINJIO produces 3-4 minute long animated episodes that teach the employees of our clients “how not to get hacked.” We do this using Hollywood-style storytelling with famous actors playing the voices of our animated characters,” says Zack Schuler, Founder, and CEO of NINJIO. The company creates and releases an episode each month and covers the latest breach or scam in the cyber realm. They have been lately covering a series of COVID-19 scams that are happening as we speak.

“We have been called the “Kings of Content,” according to many in the analyst community. The engaging and real-time nature of our content works to change the behavior of our viewers and significantly raise the security posture of our clients,” explains Zack. NINJIO currently has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars in the Security Awareness Computer-Based Training Market, according to the leading research and advisory company Gartner Peer Insights.

Engagement is the key

NINJIO consistently monitors the threat landscape as it evolves and changes for the latest breaches and the latest hacks. This way, the company is able to release an episode in a 30-day cycle, which has highly relevant content that depicts what is going on right now. This educates the employees on the latest happenings in the world of cyberattacks and cybersecurity. This goes a long way in educating the viewers on the attacks that are currently on the rise, be it a new style phishing attack, a smishing attack, or a new COVID-19 scam. Other solutions in the meanwhile train employees in threats that have been prevalent a year ago and not ones that they are facing today. Everybody knows that content that focuses on old cybersecurity awareness is like watching the news from a year ago, and this is something NINJIO steers away from.

NINJIO believes that keeping people’s attention requires content that appeals directly to them emotionally. For this, NINJIO’s team uses storytelling as a medium for education. The characters in their short 4-minute videos engage the viewers emotionally and never try to lecture them. “We do everything in our power to emotionally engage the viewer in the first scene of the episode, and if we are able to do so, it is not hard to keep them engaged until the end, as each episode is only 3-4 minutes long,” states CEO.

Become a subject matter expert – for your family

NINJIO includes “Friends and Family Use Rights” in each subscription. Analysts opined strongly in 2017 that NINJIO’s content easily crossed over well from work to home. This inspired Zack to extend the usage rights to the family of each employee. “It was at that moment where I had the thought – If I can get the family watching the same episode that the employee at work watched, I can create a cybersecurity dialogue around the family dinner table. It will be a game-changer,” reflected Zack. And game-changer it was. By extending the usage rights to the family, NINJIO turned the employee into a subject matter expert on all things security. While consuming NINJIO’s content, an employee is aware that by educating himself, he is not just protecting himself but all of his family at home. It has been a massive hit within the NINJIO community.

The Leader Upfront

Zack Schuler, Founder and CEO An entrepreneur par excellence, Zack founded Cal Net Technology Group in 1995 before establishing NINJIO. Cal Net Technology Group was an IT Services provider to small and medium-sized businesses in LA. The company was acquired by Olympic Valley and Boathouse Capital and subsequently acquired by NexusTek. He was previously on the boards of Ascension Lutheran Day School and Sherwood County Club Charitable Foundation. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

He has a BS in marketing from California State University, Northridge.

“The company creates and releases an episode each month and covers the latest breach or scam in the cyber realm.”