Full Report
Dive into the improvements and progress we’ve made with Huntress Security Awareness Training since acquiring Curricula one year ago.
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Huntress Marks First Anniversary of Curricula Acquisition with Enhanced Security Awareness Training
## Summary
Huntress is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its acquisition of Curricula, now rebranded as Huntress Security Awareness Training (SAT). The company has significantly scaled its creative and engineering teams to integrate real-world threat intelligence from its Security Operations Center (SOC) into its story-based educational content.
## Key Details
- **Date:** July 19, 2023
- **Companies Involved:** Huntress, Curricula (Acquired entity)
- **Category:** M&A / Product Update
## The Story
Following the acquisition of Curricula in July 2022, Huntress has spent the last year transitioning the platform from a standalone product to an integrated component of the Huntress Managed Security Platform. A primary focus has been "story-based" learning, leveraging the character "DeeDee" to make cybersecurity relatable to non-technical employees.
Huntress has doubled its creative team, notably hiring veteran animators (including talent from *South Park*) to increase content production speed without losing quality. The product strategy now bridges the gap between Huntress’ SOC—which monitors 2 million endpoints—and the end-user. By using real-world data from recent attacks, such as QuickBooks plugin scams and ransomware trends, the R&D team crafts monthly simulated phishing scenarios and new training modules (e.g., Insider Threat, Spear Phishing, and upcoming HIPAA-specific content).
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **Huntress:** Successfully diversified its revenue stream beyond EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) into the human risk management space. The acquisition appears well-integrated, with 100% retention of the Curricula support team and cross-training across the broader organization.
### For Competitors
- **Competitive Landscape:** Huntress is directly challenging legacy SAT providers like KnowBe4 by emphasizing high-production-value animation and "managed" services over "boring PowerPoint" compliance-check styles. Their ability to link training content to live SOC findings provides a unique competitive edge that pure-play SAT vendors lack.
### For Customers
- **Impact on end users:** Employees receive more engaging, less "punitive" training. For MSPs (Managed Service Providers), the introduction of "Managed Learning Plans" reduces the administrative burden of scheduling and assigning training.
### For the Market
- **Broader Market Implications:** This moves the market toward "Threat-Informed Education," where training is no longer a static annual requirement but a dynamic response to the current threat landscape.
## Technical Implications
The integration allows for a feedback loop where technical telemetry from the Huntress Managed EDR can inform the Security Awareness Training. For example, when the SOC identifies a rise in "Malvertising," the engineering and creative teams can rapidly deploy a corresponding training module to mitigate that specific risk in real-time.
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Huntress is positioning itself as an all-in-one security partner for the "99%" (SMEs and the MSPs that serve them), moving beyond reactive detection into proactive human-layer defense.
- **Competitive Advantage:** The "Managed" aspect. By handling the curation and assignment of content via their R&D team, Huntress appeals to resource-constrained IT departments.
- **Challenges:** Maintaining high animation quality while trying to increase the frequency of content releases; ensuring the "fun" tone of the training remains professional enough for highly regulated industries like Finance or Healthcare.
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinion:** The move is seen as a logical extension of the "Huntress mission." Analysts note that human error remains a top attack vector, and integrating SAT into an EDR platform creates a more holistic security posture.
- **Market Response:** Strong adoption among MSPs who prefer a single-pane-of-glass experience for both technical defense and user education.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictions:** Expect Huntress to deepen the automation between the SOC and SAT. If a user clicks a malicious link in a real-world scenario (detected by EDR), the system might automatically assign a relevant training "nudge" to that specific user.
- **What to watch for:** The launch of HIPAA-specific content and the full rollout of Managed Learning Plans.
## For Security Professionals
Practitioners should view this as a shift toward **Human Risk Management (HRM)**. Instead of treating SAT as a compliance checkbox, professionals can now leverage SAT as a tactical tool that evolves based on the same intelligence used to hunt for threats on the network.