It’s
not
news
that
phishing
attacks
are
getting
more
complex
and
happening
more
often.
This
year
alone,
APWG
reported
a
record-breaking
total
of

1,097,811
phishing
attacks.
These
attacks
continue
to
target
organizations
and
individuals
to
gain
their
sensitive
information.

The
hard
news:
they’re
often
successful,
have
a
long-lasting
negative
impact
on
your
organization
and
employees,
including:

• Loss
  of
  Money
• Reputation
  damage
• Loss
  of
  Intellectual
  property
• Disruptions
  to
  operational
  activities
• Negative
  effect
  on
  company
  culture

The
harder
news:
These
often
could
have
been
easily
avoided.

Phishing,
educating
your
employees,
and
creating
a
cyber
awareness
culture?
These
are
topics
we’re
sensitive
to
and
well-versed
in.
So,
how
can
you
effectively
protect
your
organization
against
phishing
attempts?
These
best
practices
will
help
transform
your
employees’
behavior
and
build
organizational
resilience
to
phishing
attacks.

Plan
for
total
workforce
training:

According
to
the
2022

Tessian
Security
Cultures
Report, “security
leaders
underestimate
just
how
much
they
should
be
a
part
of
the
employee
experience”
across
onboarding,
role
changes,
offboarding,
relocations,
and
day-to-day
activities.

But
we’ve
repeatedly
seen
that
ad
hoc,
scattershot
employee
training
attempts
don’t
work.
If
you
want
sufficient
internal
defenses
against
sophisticated
phishing
threats,
you
should
train
100%
of
your
employees
monthly.

Granted,
it
isn’t
easy
if
your
team
is
growing
rapidly
or
spread
across
different
locations
and
time
zones.
Yet
doing
anything
less
than
100%
employee
training
leaves
you
with
too
many
security
holes
and
opportunities
for
hackers
to
break
in.
Unfortunately,
it
also
means
you
have
no
way
of
knowing
your
employees’
level
of
threat
awareness
or
whether
they
know
how
to
react
to
threats.
You
might
be
missing
your
weakest
link
or
getting
into
a
scenario
that
could
have
been
easily
avoided.

Apply
Continuous
Training

Ever
been
told
there’ll
be
a
fire
evacuation
drill?
Likely,
you
weren’t
caught
off
guard
when
the
practice
started
and
could
have
paid
more
attention.
That’s
the
thing
about
drills;
they’re
in
place
to
prepare
us
for
present
and
future
threats.

Cybersecurity
training
is
no
different.
While
it
can
quickly
become
ticking
a
compliance
box
to
satisfy
minimum
requirements.
To
prevent
it,
you
need
to
catch
your
staff
off
guard.
Knowing
that
a
threat
could
present
itself
at
any
time
keeps
employees
vigilant
and
accountable
between
more
extensive
training
campaigns.

It
would
be
best
if
you
kept
giving
your
employees
these
unexpected
opportunities
to
learn
on
an
ongoing
basis.
They
will
likely
make
easily
avoidable
mistakes
if
they
only
receive
occasional
simulations.
You
might
miss
new
employees
without
sufficient
cybersecurity
training,
or
it
might
take
time
for
them
to
revisit
and
build
on
this
training.

The
solution:
Conducting
consistent
cybersecurity
training
is
the
best
way
to
keep
it
top
of
mind
for
everyone—train
for
yesterday,
today,
and
tomorrow.

Deploy
Adaptive
Content

You
might
use
cybersecurity
understanding
or
departments
as
categories.
Start
by
segmenting
your
workforce
into
groups.
Then,
develop
adaptive
training
based
on
each
group’s
needs
–
and
even
based
on
individual
behavior.
That’s
critical
to
adequately
address
the
challenges
of
given
scenarios
of
future
attack
campaigns.

These
can
include
data
or
password
requests,
messages
from
legitimate
sources,
or
realistic
content
tailored
to
an
organization’s
specific
role
or
department.

You
strengthen
employees’
defenses
by
adapting
your
content
to
individual
responses
and
specific
attack
vectors.
Doing
so
turns
the
human
element
from
a
security
gap
to
a
security
advantage.

Localize
Your
Cybersecurity
Training

English
might
be
your
corporate
language,
but
it
might
not
be
every
employee’s
mother
tongue,
and
cultural
contexts
might
be
perceived
differently
in
some
branches.

Using
employees’
mother
tongue
within
a
location’s
cultural
context
will
dramatically
enhance
their
learning
retention.
By
citing
local
references
(such
as
national
holidays,
significant
news
sources,
popular
social
media
platforms,
and
more),
you
make
your
simulations
more
believable
and
relatable.
Your
employees
will
likely
pay
better
attention
during
training
and
will
be
less
susceptible
to
attacks.

Lastly,
there
could
be
different
implications
regarding
email
compliance
standards
in
different
places.
Ensure
your
team
is
aware
of
that
and
incorporate
the
necessary
precautions
in
these
locations’
training.

Back
Your
Cyber
Training
with
Data
Science

In
our
experience,
one
in
every
five
employees
is
a “serial
clicker.”
Serial
clickers
click,
open,
and
download
attachments
that
often
place
them
and
your
organization
in
danger.
They
might
be
a
new
or
existing
employee.
We’ve
seen
it
all,
from
entry-level

positions
to
company
stakeholders.

They’re
not
trained
or
equipt
to
reliably
identify
phishing
attacks,
nor
understand
how
dangerous
and
their
destructive
impact.
So
they
keep
clicking
links
in
emails
that
they
shouldn’t
have
opened.

The
good
news:
We
believe

serial
clickers
can
be
cured
because
we’ve
seen
it
repeatedly
happen
with
employee
training
and
education.

We
know
that
serial
clickers
are
just
some
of
the
ones
to
worry
about.
Employees
respond
differently
to
a
variety
of
attack
vectors.
It’s
recommended
to
use
data
science
to
understand
how
employee
groups
within
your
organization
–
from
new
hires,
executive
leadership,
and
veteran
employees
–
respond
to
potential
threats.

Once
you
analyze
the
data
to
understand
these
groups’
behavior,
you
can
develop
programs
that
shift
them
toward
a
more
discerning
approach
to
email
management
based
on
their
specific
needs
and
their
current
place
in
their
cybersecurity
awareness
journey.

These
programs
must
include
expert
knowledge,
adjusted
frequency,
timely
reminders,

custom
simulations,
and
training
content
designed
for
highly
susceptible
groups
while
respecting
employees’
privacy.

Automate
Your
Cybersecurity
Education

Regardless
of
the
size
of
your
organization,
the
complexity
required
to
run
a
training
program
like
the
one
described
above
can
be
challenging.
Whether
you’re
looking
at
it
from
the
perspective
of
time,
resources,
or
economics,
it’s
almost
impossible
without
a
truly
automated
solution
that
has
expert
knowledge
baked
into
the
software.

CybeReady
provides
a

fully-automated
platform
powered
by
machine
learning
technology.
It
mitigates
the
risks
of
human
error
through
an
educational
approach
that
continuously
provides
frequent,
adaptive,
engaging
training.
Get
in
touch
today
to
foster
a
culture
that
cares,
retains
information
to

keep
your
organization
safe,
and
feels
accountable.
Make
your
organization
cyber-ready.
Learn
how
you
can
upgrade
your
security
awareness
program
with
a
short,

perosanilized
demo.