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Cyber Strategy and Governance

Cyber Security Training

Turn your staff attack surface into first line of defence.

Book a discovery What's included
Cyber Security Training
Assess → Design → Measure
Overview

Attackers long ago worked out that people are easier to compromise than systems. A convincing email, a spoofed invoice, an urgent call claiming to be the CEO — most successful attacks start with a person, not an exploit, yet most security training is built to evidence completion, not change behaviour.

Avocado's trainers are practitioners; the same consultants who assess, test and design the controls your people work within. Training is specific to each role, simulation is continuous and blame-free, and boards get enough fluency to govern cyber risk and own the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

Who is this for?

You'll recognise the situation

Your security training is built to evidence completion, not change behaviour — an annual module everyone clicks through.

Phishing simulation feels like a compliance exercise that staff resent, rather than something that actually reduces risk.

Your board gets briefings pitched at either terrifying or trivial, without enough fluency to own the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

You need training specific to what each role actually faces, not a generic average applied to everyone.

What's included

From the front line to the boardroom

Tailored Training

Role-specific security training built from the attacks your people actually face.

Phishing Simulation

Continuous, blame-free simulation that lifts reporting rates, not just click statistics.

Executive and Board-Level Advisory

Give your directors and executives the fluency to govern cyber risk with confidence.

In detail

How each capability works

01

Tailored Training

Generic awareness modules teach people to pass a quiz. We build training from your context: your systems, your incidents and near-misses, the attacks your sector actually sees — delivered by consultants who assess and test organisations like yours every week. Because our trainers work across the whole Secure pillar, the developer session is written by people who do application security, and the finance team's session by people who have investigated real payment redirection attempts.

Our approach
  • Training needs analysis — who faces what, from staff and contractors to high-risk roles.
  • Role-based programs — finance and payments, executive assistants, developers and engineers, IT administrators, customer-facing teams.
  • Secure development training for engineering teams, aligned with our Application Security and DevSecOps practice.
  • Induction and refresher pathways, so capability builds instead of resetting annually.
  • Scenario-based workshops built from real Australian incidents and your own near-misses.
  • Behaviour measurement — reporting rates, escalation quality and decision speed, reported to your governance forums.
02

Phishing Simulation

Phishing simulation done badly makes security the enemy — gotcha tests, wall-of-shame metrics, and staff who stop reporting because they fear blame. We run it as a capability program: realistic scenarios, difficulty that escalates as your people improve, coaching in the moment someone clicks, and success measured on how fast people report.

Our approach
  • Baseline assessment of current click and reporting behaviour.
  • Realistic, current scenarios — credential harvesting, invoice fraud, MFA fatigue, QR and SMS variants.
  • Escalating difficulty and targeted campaigns for high-risk roles.
  • Just-in-time coaching at the moment of the click, not weeks later in a module.
  • Reporting-first metrics — report rate, time to report, and trend by team — presented without blame.
  • Integration with your training program, so simulation results drive what gets taught next.
03

Executive and Board-Level Advisory

Boards don't need to be turned into technologists; they need enough fluency to govern: to know which questions to ask, what good answers look like, and which cyber decisions are genuinely theirs to own. Our advisers have held executive roles in Australia's largest banks, government agencies and infrastructure operators, so briefings are peer conversations, not lectures.

Our approach
  • Board and committee briefings on cyber risk, threat landscape and obligations, in governance language rather than technical language.
  • Briefings on formal governing-body obligations, including CIRMP annual report approval for eligible critical infrastructure entities.
  • Executive scenario workshops that build decision-making fluency for cyber events, delivered as education.
How do we deliver it?

Assess needs, design, deliver, measure

01

Assess

Assess who faces what — staff, contractors, high-risk roles, specialists, or the board — and what behaviour actually needs to change.

02

Design

Design role-based programs and simulation scenarios built from your context, your systems, and the attacks your sector actually sees.

03

Deliver

Deliver training, phishing simulation, and board or executive briefings, with just-in-time coaching built in rather than delayed to a module.

04

Measure

Measure behaviour change such as reporting rates, escalation quality, decision speed, and feed results back into what gets taught next.

Book a discovery

Book a discovery with our cyber team

Tell us who you need to reach — staff, specialists or the board — and we'll sketch the program that would actually move them.

Book a discovery
What tools and technology do we use?

Built by practitioners, not a slide library

Training and simulation content is built by practising consultants across governance, testing, infrastructure and identity, not licensed from a generic slide library. Phishing simulation covers current, realistic scenarios including credential harvesting, invoice fraud, MFA fatigue, and QR and SMS variants. Executive and board advisory is delivered by advisers with executive experience in Australia's largest banks, government agencies and infrastructure operators.

What outcomes can you expect?

What you walk away with

Equip each role for the attacks it actually faces, not a generic average.
Build a security culture where reporting is a reflex, not a risk.
Give directors the fluency to govern cyber risk, not just receive reports about it.
Measure behaviour change such as reporting rates, decision quality, time to escalate, not module completion.
Proof · Case study

Remediating security and privacy risks

Read the case study
How is this engagement structured?

Not sure where to start — staff, specialists or the board? Talk to us about a training needs baseline. Contact us for a tailored quote.

FAQ

Common questions

How is this different from generic security awareness training?

Content is built from your actual systems, incidents and near-misses, delivered by practitioners who assess and test organisations like yours, not a licensed slide library. Programs are measured on behaviour change, not module completion.

Does phishing simulation punish staff who click?

No — it's run as a blame-free capability program, with just-in-time coaching at the point of a click and metrics focused on reporting rates rather than failure counts.

What's a good phishing simulation click rate?

There's no universal benchmark, and chasing a single percentage can be misleading — a click from an administrator or someone with payment authority matters far more than the overall average. What matters is the trend: a click rate that falls while your reporting rate rises over time, and a shrinking group of repeat clickers who get targeted coaching rather than the same generic training as everyone else.

What do boards need to know about cyber security?

Enough fluency to ask the right questions, evaluate whether investment matches risk appetite, and understand which decisions and approvals — like the CIRMP annual report for eligible critical infrastructure entities — are formally theirs to own.

Do you run formal incident response tabletop exercises?

Executive scenario workshops here are educational, building decision-making fluency. Formal BCP/DR tabletop exercises that test documented plans are delivered through our Governance, Risk and Compliance service.

Can this include secure development training for engineers?

Yes — secure development training is aligned with our Application Security and DevSecOps practice, delivered as part of tailored, role-based training.

Related services

Where teams go next

Cyber Strategy

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Want formal BCP/DR tabletop exercises, not education workshops?
Cyber Strategy

Privacy Advisory

Training staff on privacy obligations specifically?
Cyber Solutions

Security Testing and Assurance

Need application security training tied to a testing engagement?
Deliver with certainty

Build a workforce attackers can't fool

Talk to our training specialists about building security capability from the front line to the boardroom.

Talk to us