Businesses face a range of threats from both hackers and other cybercriminals. Many of these threats target employees directly because they are often the weakest link. One notable example of this is phishing attacks.
A successful phishing attack provides access to secure employee accounts. Depending on what an employee has access to, this can lead to both data breaches and ransomware attacks. The best way to defend against phishing attacks is to perform a phishing simulation.
So what is a phishing simulation and how does it work?
What Is a Phishing Simulation?
A phishing simulation is the process ofsending phishing emailsto people to determine whether or not they fall for them. Phishing simulations are typically performed by businesses in order to train employees and prevent them falling for an actual phishing attack.
A phishing simulation can be performed independently, but many security providers now offer simulations as a training product. These products further include both reports on who is vulnerable and resources on how to train them.
Advantages of Phishing Simulations
Phishing simulations offer a variety of advantages to businesses and are an important part of security awareness training.
Simulations Prevent Actual Phishing Attacks
Phishing simulations provide employees with experience of receiving a phishing email and where necessary, training on how to handle them. They also increase overall awareness of the threat that phishing emails pose. Because of this, business who perform a simulation are much less likely to suffer a successful attack.
Phishing Simulations Identify Employees Who Require Training
Phishing simulations provide reports on who is likely to fall for a phishing email. This allows a business to provide increased training specifically to these people. This makes training efficient and ensures that the weakest employees improve.
Simulations Provide Alerts of Sophisticated Phishing Attacks
Phishing simulations encourage employees to not only not interact with phishing emails but also to forward them to the IT team. This is useful for understanding the types of phishing emails that employees are receiving. It also provides a business with the ability to warn employees about any particularly sophisticated attacks.
Phishing Simulations Improve Compliance
Businesses are required to be compliant with a host of data security laws. Many of these laws require that a business demonstrates both their ability to keep data safe and the fact that they have providedsecurity awareness training. A phishing simulation can provide evidence of both of these things.
Phishing Simulations Promote Security
Providing any type of security training to employees promotes a culture of security at a company. This is useful for encouraging people to practice security in other areas of their work such as using strong passwords.
How Do Phishing Simulations Work?
Image Credit: MightyFineBros/Pixabay
Phishing simulations are available from a wide variety of providers and are often part of larger security awareness courses. Most, however, are conducted in a similar fashion.
A phishing simulation begins with email and target selection. An email template will be chosen. The template will look like a standard phishing email and include a request to perform an action such as click on a link or provide information. The targets may be specific employees or everyone that works at a business.
Simulation
During the actual simulation, the specified email will be sent to all employees and their actions will be recorded. If they click on a link, they will be taken to a landing page that explains that they have clicked on a phishing email.
Information Gathering
Information will be gathered about the proportion of targets that interacted with the email. This is useful for understanding how vulnerable the business is as a whole. The employees who interacted with the email will also be recorded and additional training can be provided.
Additional Training
Anyone who interacted with the apparent phishing email will be provided with additional training on the threat posed by phishing. They can then be sent an additional simulated phishing email at a later date.
How to Perform a Phishing Simulation
The ability of phishing simulations to prevent actual phishing attacks depends on how they are performed.
Choose Appropriate Software
There are many phishing simulation providers and the platform that you choose will determine the effectiveness of the training. The platform should include realistic templates and it should allow you to customize the text. It should also include detailed information about how the emails are interacted with, such as whether an employee opens an email, clicks on a link, or provides information.
Write Your Own Emails
Many phishing simulations include templates that can be sent as is. But it’s a good idea to customize them so that they are more relevant to your industry. You canalso look at phishing emailsthat your employees have received in the past and attempt to replicate them.
Perform Regular Simulations
Phishing simulations are most effective if performed regularly. This provides regular reminders of the threat that phishing poses and ensures that if any employees are becoming complacent, they can quickly be retrained.
Increase the Sophistication of Simulations
If employees are rarely failing phishing simulations, you should increase the sophistication of your attempts. Phishing emails vary widely in terms of quality, so simulations should include the newest techniques.
Combine with Security Awareness Training
Phishing is only one of the threats that an organization faces and phishing simulations should therefore be combined with other forms of security awareness training. The aim of such a course is to provide employees with a well-rounded knowledge of the threats that they face and how to protect against them.
Phishing Simulations Should Be Performed By All Businesses
All businesses are potential targets of phishing attacks. When successful, they allow the perpetrator to access secure accounts and networks. The best way to protect against phishing is to educate employees—phishing simulations are ideal for this purpose.
Phishing simulations are widely available and provide businesses with the ability to learn which employees are susceptible and to train accordingly. To protect against all online threats, phishing simulations should be offered with other courses on security awareness.
