AAAE and TSA Offer Airports Virtual Training Course In Effort to Mitigate the Inside Threat

Sept. 19, 2022

For National Insider Threat Awareness Month, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) encourage use of a recently developed virtual insider training course. The two organizations jointly developed the virtual training to help badged employees at airports recognize and report behaviors and activities that could indicate a threat to airport safety and security. The association is making the course available to aviation workers through its various training services that are used by hundreds of airports across the country.

“This important training is an element of the TSA Insider Threat Roadmap and my priorities in transportation security,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. “Solving the insider threat issue requires training, vigilance and reporting, and I am confident this course will help our thousands of badged employees.”

“Aviation security is a shared mission, and AAAE is proud to have collaborated with TSA to develop quality training on one of the biggest threats to aviation,” said Todd Hauptli, AAAE President and Chief Executive Officer. “This important insider threat training course already has been delivered efficiently and effectively to nearly 40,000 airport badge holders. We are eager to grow that number significantly in the days ahead.”

The insider threat training course produced by AAAE, in collaboration with the TSA, defines an insider threat; describes reasons people become threats; describes specific, observable behavioral indicators; clarifies the employee’s security responsibilities; and highlights how to report suspicious activity. Since launching the training in 2021, badged airport employees have expressed positive feedback about the quality of the training.

AAAE makes this virtual insider threat training course developed for aviation employees available across its computer-based training services, Digicast, and Interactive Employee Training (IET). The association’s computer-based training services are used by more than 300 airports across the country and deliver more than 1 million training sessions annually on airport related topics. For more information about this training course, visit aaae.org/insiderthreat.