Phishing simulations are among the most effective tools in the cyber awareness training toolkit to train individuals against online threats. However, simulating phishing attacks as a single action is not enough to prepare you to protect your employees from cybercrime.
We recently ran a poll on our Linkedin page and found that 17% of respondents think their companies could do a better job in using data generated from phishing simulation results:
Applying a data-oriented approach to phishing simulations is a game-changer. It can effectively help you take appropriate and smart actions to avoid risky behavior and identify which employees need more attention in your organization.
Here are 3 actions you can take by analyzing the data generated from phishing simulation campaigns:
1. Risk Score: An effective way to gauge employee cyber readiness
Everyone in your company should be a part of your cybersecurity strategy. To prepare your employees for potential phishing attacks, you should test, measure, and communicate with all of them on a repetitive basis.
Your post-simulation analysis should immediately provide preliminary results on primary engagements, such as opens, clicks, and cases where employees provided their credential details. Furthermore, advanced phishing tools will also segment your campaign results by departments and office locations.
Why is it important?
By understanding which segments of your business, such as departments or office locations, engage more with your phishing campaigns, you will be able to involve the leaders responsible for these particular areas of your company to work on improving risky behavior.
Ultimately, this information will help you build an awareness training program customized to these specific departments, delivering the right message to the right individuals.
2. Understand what types of attacks your employees are most vulnerable to
A smart phishing simulation tool will provide you with customizable email and landing page templates. Such templates should be realistic and credible.
Why is it important?
Understanding what types of phishing templates your employees are most likely to engage with can help you set the tone for what your next campaign should look like. If employees fall more to promotional email templates, perhaps it’s a good idea to test them on festive themes such as Black Friday or Holidays, for example.
3. Watch out for repetitive behaviors
If you follow our #1 best practice and run phishing simulations frequently and provide high-quality and engaging training after each campaign, then you should see a significant decrease in employees repeating behaviors and falling for phishing simulations again.
Still, we are all human and therefore susceptible to making mistakes. And that’s why you should keep your eye out for repetitive behavior rather than isolated errors across different campaigns.
Why is it important?
The primary goal of running phishing simulation campaigns is to increase cybersecurity awareness and build cyber culture within your organization. If you have employees engaging with phishing emails even after the training sessions you provide, it’s time to reinforce and engage them in more strategic approaches.
Extra tip: Enable your employees to report suspicious emails
Phishing simulation exercises are all about educating employees. Once they’ve been provided with the training and instructions on how to identify suspicious emails, give them the power to act as your company’s strongest line of defense and an extension of your security team. Tools such as Right-Hand’s PhishArm can help you with that.
Why is it important?
Not all phishing emails your employees get are simulations. Give them the capability to report malicious phishing attacks that bypass traditional perimeter defense security solutions. This will reduce the risk of network infections and email intrusions.
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