How KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Protects Your Company From Phishing

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You can set up the strongest security measures to protect your business, thinking that your private information and infrastructure are protected from anything. But this is often a false sense of hope because of the last line of defense: your employees.

Training your employees not to fall for phishing attempts is a vital way to protect your business from intrusion. But how do you do this efficiently and effectively? KnowBe4 is a company devoted to reducing human error in regards to security, and its security training is just what your business needs to fight back against phishing.

We are authorized resellers and implementers of KnowBe4. If you are interested in getting this set up for your business, please feel free to reach out!

Why Phishing Is Such a Big Deal

You might think that phishing—attempting to steal someone’s information by masquerading as a legitimate entity—is a minor problem. But phishing is far more complex than the faraway prince scam emails of years ago. Modern phishing emails can appear so convincing that even the wisest of your employees might trip up.

Instead of generic emails addressed to “Dear Sir/Madam” that stick out, phishing schemes today often study the organization before launching a targeted attack (known as spear phishing). They don’t always have blatant typos or other errors giving them away.

PhishingTrustedBank

And the consequences of phishing are serious. PhishingBox has compiled some statistics about phishing attacks. In 2019, 32% of security breaches involved phishing, and 94% of malware was delivered via email. Almost two-thirds of companies in the 2018 report were targeted by phishing.

If one of your employees falls for a phishing attack, their credentials could fall into attackers’ hands, giving a malicious party access to your systems. Phishing attacks could also introduce ransomware, locking your company’s files and asking you to pay up to unlock them.

Your staff needs to know how to spot these dangerous emails and avoid them at all costs. That’s where KnowBe4 comes in.

KnowBe4 Trains Employees to Spot Phishing

KnowBe4‘s mission is to combat social engineering attacks. It does this through a variety of methods, including fake phishing emails, interactive games, videos, newsletters, and more.

As the account owner, you’re able to set up phishing campaigns that your users receive at various times. KnowBe4 offers a variety of templates and elements that reflect common real-world phishing emails.

For example, you can send a campaign that pretends to come from the IT department, or a fake warning from a service that your company uses, such as Microsoft 365. By mixing up the emails that each person receives, and the times when they arrive, users won’t be able to warn others that a test is happening.

When you start using the service, everyone will run through a baseline test that determines how likely your employees are to click on phishing emails. From there, as they continue to work through the training materials and learn how to better spot phishing attempts, you’ll be able to see the trends of fewer users falling for these schemes.

KnowBe4’s campaigns are highly customizable. You can choose what happens if the user falls for a phishing trick—one option is an explanation of the red flags in the email. You can also show them videos about common social engineering tricks to further bolster their knowledge.

And since KnowBe4 lets you track how individual users perform over time, you can target later campaigns to the people most likely to click. You can also use this data to identify the most at-risk levels of your organization and make changes accordingly. The service is compliant with regulations like HIPAA, too.

KnowBe4’s Pricing and Tiers

KnowBe4 is available in four tiers: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Each one includes more than the prior tier; for example, Silver includes all the basics but lacks the vishing (phishing by phone) tests of the Gold plan. Each upgrade also includes more training materials for your users to access.

KnowBe4 Security Assessment Quiz

The price varies depending on the number of users you have. For organizations with 25-50 people, it varies from $18 per person (Silver) to $30.50 per person (Diamond). See KnowBe4’s pricing page for more info.

KnowBe4 offers more than just its phishing training, too. The site also offers free tools like social media phishing training, password exposure tests, and domain spoofing tests.

We are experienced with helping configure and manage KnowBe4 so you get the most benefit without taking up your internal resources time to manage.

Educate Your Users and Protect Your Business

Since any employee could be the target of a phishing attack on your company, training them up to spot and avoid common social engineering techniques is extremely important. They’ll be much less likely to fall for phishing scams when they’re used to seeing them in practice.

And with KnowBe4’s extensive tools, you can test your staff on all kinds of phishing and take personalized action for those who need more help. For more like this, take a look at other vital security practices everyone needs to follow.

If you are interested in getting this set up for your business, please feel free to reach out!

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About the Author

Picture of Don Houk

Don Houk

As President of Next7 IT, a leading provider of managed IT services, Don guides the company's strategic direction and growth. His experience building high-performing teams, establishing repeatable processes, and delivering outstanding client results demonstrate his passion for using technology to drive business success for Next7 clients.

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