Linaro Limited

Most security awareness training (SAT) fails for the same reason: people don’t pay attention.

A dated video plays. A quiz pops up. Someone clicks through it while half-reading emails and thinking about lunch. Technically, the training happened. Whether anything actually stuck is another story.

Linaro Limited wanted more than that.

Founded in 2010 to help companies working with ARM processors and open source software collaborate more effectively, Linaro Limited has since expanded into private services, products, and online solutions. As the business evolved, so did the pressure to prove their security maturity, especially as larger customers asked tougher questions and the company worked toward ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance.

Challenge | Finding a program people would actually absorb

For Philip Colmer, Senior Director of Information Services at Linaro Limited, security awareness was never just an IT concern. “It affects everybody in the company,” he says.

That made the problem pretty simple: if the training doesn’t work for everyday employees, it doesn’t really work at all.

Linaro Limited had already cycled through a few different approaches. One vendor offered annual video training plus phishing tests. Another focused exclusively on phishing tests. Another delivered only monthly training videos.

The programs felt fragmented. And worse yet, they were difficult to manage and administer. Without phishing tests, Colmer worried staff awareness could slip over time. And when the videos themselves didn’t always work well, or the quiz at the end was weak, the lessons became easier to forget.

Linaro Limited needed training that was easy to roll out, easier to manage, and strong enough to support compliance goals without fading into the background.

Solution | An engaging program that felt more natural

Linaro Limited trialed Huntress Managed SAT for about two weeks. That was enough for Colmer to know they were headed in the right direction. “I was pretty happy with it right from the get-go,” he said. “Huntress just ticks a lot of boxes for us.”

What stood out wasn’t just the content, but the way it was delivered. Instead of sending phishing tests in one big obvious blast, Huntress staggered them over time. “It trickles them out,” Colmer says, contrasting Huntress with past platforms where employees would quickly recognize the test and warn each other.

The learning modules also landed well. When Colmer tried one himself, he knew pretty quickly it felt right. “I like the tone that’s being used. I like the way it’s being taught,” he said. “Huntress Managed SAT is going to go down well.”

Linaro Limited needed training that didn’t talk over people’s heads. Managed SAT fit the bill perfectly. It’s designed to be approachable, with lessons that are easy for anyone to understand, no matter their technical background. Plus, the modules are short, usually around 8 to 12 minutes, with quizzes sprinkled throughout the lesson instead of being tacked on at the end. “You really do have to pay attention,” Colmer says.

Huntress also helped make rollout painless. Colmer said the support team helped him get everything set up, and the phishing reporting feature added “that little bit of fun” while still reinforcing the right habits.

Results | Less admin work meets reduced human risk

The biggest change was the one Linaro Limited wanted most: behavior.

People started slowing down. They questioned suspicious emails. They reached out before reacting. Colmer noticed employees messaging him on Slack to ask whether something might be a phishing test rather than just clicking, deleting, or moving on. “I do believe our staff are much more aware,” he says.

For Colmer, a few wins stand out:

• Less admin work for compliance:

  Huntress’ integration with Sprinto lets Linaro Limited stop manually exporting reports and uploading them for compliance evidence. As Colmer put it, that created a real “reduction of effort.”

• Better visibility into learner progress:

  Huntress gave Colmer clearer insights into how training was going and made those insights available to managers, too, instead of leaving everything with one admin.

• More engaging training:

  A larger training library, the option to add custom material, phishing-report feedback, and built-in gamification all help keep learners engaged. As Colmer says, “The gamification especially works.”

• Broader awareness across the company:

  Huntress helped expose staff to topics in a way that was approachable for non-specialists. Colmer said it was handled “at a level that even a non-technical person could understand.”

When it came to SAT, Linaro Limited wasn’t starting from scratch, but Huntress gave Linaro Limited a more effective way to train their people, support compliance, and build habits that hold up in the real world.

And when security training feels less like homework and more like something people actually absorb, that’s when it starts doing its job.