- Conan O’Brien fronts a new cybersecurity training video series
- Adaptive combines comedy and security awareness for the company’s employees
- AI-generated scams are becoming harder for workers to identify
Cybersecurity awareness programs have struggled with a persistent problem for years — employees often treat mandatory training sessions as routine drills.
Adaptive Security is trying a different approach by bringing iconic talk show host Conan O’Brien into a new training initiative focused on modern digital threats.
The New York-based company has produced a 15-part educational series with O’Brien to help business users understand growing online security risks.
Cyber security education gets a celebrity face
The videos examine issues including phishing attacks, impersonation attempts, voice cloning schemes, deepfakes and other types of fraud associated with AI technologies.
According to the company, each episode begins with a comedy segment tied to the topic being discussed before moving into the educational material.
The production involved collaboration between Adaptive Security employees and staff from Team Coco, the media company associated with O’Brien’s entertainment projects.
Adaptive said the series will be available to enterprise customers using its training and cyber security awareness products.
In addition to the known content, the company also releases additional educational videos that do not feature O’Brien.
“I teamed up with Adaptive Security just to find out what these kids are up to. Turns out it’s pretty cool,” O’Brien said in a statement.
The partnership reportedly came about after company employees expressed appreciation for some of O’Brien’s long-running comedy sketches and recurring television spots.
Rather than focusing on entertainment audiences, however, the training material is intended for employees who must navigate complex security challenges in the workplace.
AI fraud creates new concerns
Founded in 2024, Adaptive Security develops products intended to help organizations recognize and respond to cyber threats.
Its offerings include security awareness courses, phishing simulations and other services powered by a combination of proprietary and publicly available AI models.
Business leaders argue that the threat landscape has changed significantly as generative AI tools become more widely available.
According to Adaptive’s product manager, Andrew Jones, attacks have become more sophisticated and frequent.
“There really is a before and after,” Jones said while discussing AI’s growing influence on cybercrime.
“There’s before, which was before AI, and then there’s after, which is after AI — and after AI, these attacks have become much more sophisticated.”
He added that companies need clear strategies because new technologies make fraud campaigns increasingly difficult to detect and counter.
Industry forecasts, often cited by cybersecurity firms, suggest that financial losses associated with AI-enabled fraud may continue to rise in the coming years.
Adaptive points to these projections as evidence of growing risks and argues that improved training can help organizations reduce their exposure.
The company has attracted significant investor backing, raising more than $140 million from multiple funding rounds involving prominent technology investors.
This financial support reflects broader interest in cybersecurity products as organizations face increasing pressure to strengthen employee awareness programs.
For many companies, the challenge extends beyond producing training materials and involves keeping employees’ attention during these sessions.
Via Variety
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