Stu Sjouwerman

Chief Executive Officer & President

Stu Sjouwerman (pronounced “shower-man”) is the founder and CEO of KnowBe4, Inc., which hosts the world’s most popular integrated security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, with over 54,000 organization customers and more than 50 million users. A serial entrepreneur and data security expert with 30 years in the IT industry, Stu was the co-founder of Inc. 500 company Sunbelt Software, a multiple award-winning anti-malware software company that was acquired in 2010.

Books

Cyberheist E-Book

Find all of Stu's books on Amazon

The Average Ransom Demand of $5.3M in 2021 is Up 518% From Last Year

Aug 18, 2021 10:16:08 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Cybercriminals appear to be more aggressive with their idealistic ransom demands as some gangs continue to evolve, using new “quadruple extortion” tactics to ensure payment.

Copyright Scammers Now Making Phone Calls

Aug 18, 2021 10:15:47 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Copyright infringement scammers have begun using phone calls to contact potential victims, according to Paul Ducklin at Naked Security.

Attackers Use Morse Code to Encode Phishing Attachments

Aug 17, 2021 9:56:28 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A phishing campaign is using morse code to encode malicious attachments in order to slip past security filters, according to researchers at Microsoft. The phishing emails contain HTML ...

KnowBe4’s Automated Security Awareness Program Builder Now Available in Nine Languages

Aug 17, 2021 9:26:20 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Now that the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing Platform is available in nine localized languages, starting your organization's security awareness training program ...

CyberheistNews Vol 11 #32 [Heads Up] The Cyber Insurance Industry Is Wrongly Hedging Its Bets On MFA

Aug 17, 2021 9:20:05 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The Anatomy of Smishing Attacks and How to Avoid Them

Aug 16, 2021 8:56:01 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Cybercriminals and nation-state actors continue to launch smishing attacks to steal credentials and distribute malware, according to Michael Marriott, Senior Strategy and Research Analyst ...

Military Personnel Vulnerable to Fraud

Aug 13, 2021 10:55:52 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

US military personnel and veterans have lost more than $822 million to scams since 2017, according to researchers at AtlasVPN. The researchers analyzed data from the US Federal Trade ...

Words of Advice for Organizations on Cybersecurity Best Practices

Aug 13, 2021 9:27:56 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

We recently attended Black Hat USA 2021 this year and Erich Kron, Security Awareness Advocate for KnowBe4, sat down with Cybersecurity Ventures to give words of advice for all ...

What’s in a (Ransomware Gang) Name? (A Gang by Any Other Name is Just as Dangerous)

Aug 12, 2021 8:21:46 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The shutting down or even retirement of one ransomware gang seems to result in another popping up. Are these new gangs or just reincarnations of the old one with a new face?

Is Being a Ransomware Affiliate Profitable? The Math Says it is!

Aug 12, 2021 8:21:29 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

While plenty of industry data and new stories confirm ransomware gangs are raking in tens-to-hundreds of thousands per successful attack, is the business of ransomware profitable?

Android Trojan Goes After Facebook Accounts

Aug 11, 2021 9:11:53 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new Android Trojan has hijacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts by stealing session cookies, according to researchers at Zimperium. The malware uses social engineering to trick users ...

Spear Phishing Becomes a Bigger Problem as the Average Organization is Targeted 700 Times a Year

Aug 11, 2021 8:21:16 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

With threat actors honing their trickery skills to craft the perfect email used to fool a would-be victim recipient, new data shows cybercriminals are stepping up their game on a number ...

DarkSide Ransomware Returns as BlackMatter After Sudden Shutdown of Operations

Aug 11, 2021 8:20:59 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Probably the world’s most notorious ransomware gang disappears completely and subsequently reappears with new branding in an attempt to separate themselves from the types of attacks that ...

Cyber Insurance Rates Climb 30% as Ransomware Attacks, Costs, and Payments are All on the Rise

Aug 11, 2021 8:20:31 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

In a case of “I told you so”, it seems that cyber insurance costs have risen this year as organizations fail to properly protect themselves from rampant ransomware attacks.

CyberheistNews Vol 11 #31 [HEADS UP] Microsoft Warns of Sneaky Phishing Campaign

Aug 10, 2021 9:34:20 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Cyber Insurance Industry Wrongly Hedging Its Bets on MFA

Aug 10, 2021 8:53:19 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Because of ransomware attacks, I have been covering the cybersecurity insurance industry for a few years, including here. I even have a whole chapter dedicated to cybersecurity insurance ...

FTC Warns of Unemployment Insurance Phishing Scheme

Aug 10, 2021 8:22:39 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning about scams targeting unemployed people via text messages.

Your KnowBe4 Fresh Content Updates from July

Aug 6, 2021 3:35:34 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

With 25 new pieces of training content added this month, check out the always fresh content update highlights and new features from the month of July.

BEC Attacks Are Targeting Lower-Level Employees

Aug 5, 2021 8:48:30 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new report from Barracuda found that most business email compromise (BEC) attacks are now targeting employees who aren’t in executive or financial roles.

[On-Demand Webinar] Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Learn the Methods Bad Actors Use to Hack Your Organization

Aug 4, 2021 2:04:43 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The digital age has unleashed massive amounts of personal and organizational data on the internet. No breaking through firewalls or exploiting vulnerabilities required.

Security Awareness Training Blog

View Topics