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

[ALERT] 93% of phishing attacks now have ransomware payloads

Jun 4, 2016 10:02:16 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Oh boy. Things have gotten from bad to worse in an awful hurry. I remember the first time I reported on ransomware in the CyberheistNews Issue Feb 11, 2014, where an attorney's office ...

Looks Like 8 More Cyberheists By North Koreans

Jun 3, 2016 7:42:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Gottfried Leibbrandt, chief executive of the world’s largest interbank funds-transfer system SWIFT, has said repeatedly that the prospect of cybercrime is what keeps him awake at night. ...

[INFOGRAPHIC] Don't Be The Victim Of A Cyberheist

Jun 2, 2016 2:48:57 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

We have created a new infographic for your users, as part of your ongoing security awareness training program. It's a few good reminders how to stay safe online, and to keep their ...

Top Ransomware campaign managers make 13 times more than avg Russian wages

Jun 2, 2016 7:44:02 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

A short report by Flashpoint gives us some insight into a recent ransomware campaign, which so far has generated a serious amount of profit considering it takes little effort to operate.

Phishing Attacks Ramp Into 2016 With Major Increase

Jun 2, 2016 7:18:11 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

In its most recent Phishing Trends Report, the APWG noted a 250% increase in phishing sites between October 2015 and March 2016 — and the 2016 increase shows the never ending criminal ...

Ransomware domains increased 3500% in Q1 2016

Jun 1, 2016 7:26:25 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

There has been a whopping 3500% increase in ransomware domains in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the last quarter of 2015. Those are the highlights of a new report by network ...

CEO And CFO Fired After Aerospace Company Grounded By CEO Fraud

May 31, 2016 1:06:27 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Here is a great way for C-level execs to lose their job: allow your company to become the victim of CEO Fraud. That happened to the CEO and CFO of FACC, part of both Airbus' and Boeings' ...

CyberheistNews Vol 6 #22 It's Here. Nasty Ransomware That Spreads Like A Worm.

May 31, 2016 9:46:51 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

CryptoWall, Locky, and Cerber Are Today's Top 3 Ransomware Threats

May 30, 2016 9:39:15 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

US cyber-security firm Fortinet reports that, between April 1, 2016, and May 15, 2016, the top five most prevalent ransomware families were in this order: CryptoWall (41.04%), Locky ...

New Strain Of Cerber Ransomware Being Offered As RaaS On Russian Hacking Forum

May 30, 2016 7:04:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Security Researchers at Forcepoint discovered that a Russian hacking forum on the dark web is selling the Cerber ransomware as a RaaS (Ransom-as-a-service). This is a new form since ...

Are North Koreans The Bad Guys Behind Brazen Cyberheists?

May 29, 2016 9:52:24 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

In March, we posted a story about a cyberheist where hackers tried to steal a cool 1 Billion dollars from the Bangladesh Central Bank, but a simple typo thwarted most of their attempt. ...

The Nightmare of Exploits Past. How Phishing Attacks Use Old Vulnerabilities

May 28, 2016 11:57:16 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

By Eric Howes, KnowBe4's Principal Lab Researcher Remember .PIF files? If you're like us, the extension probably rings a bell somewhere deep in the dustiest recesses of your mind -- the ...

Scam Of The Week: Summer Olympics Canceled in Rio

May 28, 2016 10:29:28 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Heads-up! There is a spike in phishing attacks with Summer Olympics themes, and in the coming months the bad guys are going to be all over this. Kaspersky Labs researchers are reporting ...

Microsoft Alert: ZCryptor Ransomware With Worm Feature

May 27, 2016 9:56:04 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Microsoft released an alert about a new ransomware strain called ZCryptor, which works like a worm and spreads via removable and network drives. The MalwareForMe blog reported this first ...

Shields Up! New DMA Locker V4 Unleashes Major Ransomware Assault

May 25, 2016 5:10:28 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

DMA Locker is an excellent example of cybercrime's furious speed of innovation. Version 1 showed up in January 2016, and V2 a month later, but the implementation of the encryption ...

Massive Locky Ransomware Campaign Targets Amazon Users

May 25, 2016 3:20:34 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Comodo Threat Research Labs just posted an alert that a massive campaign of phishing emails have been sent with a spoofed "from" address: auto-shipping@amazon.com. The subject is “Your ...

CyberheistNews Vol 6 #21 [ALERT] This New Ransomware Strain Adds DDoS Bot Causing More Damage

May 23, 2016 8:38:51 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

[ALERT] Cerber Ransomware Strain Adds DDoS Bot Causing More Damage

May 22, 2016 2:12:49 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Excuse my French, but Holy S#!+, some ransomware developers have created a new evil way to monetize their operations by adding a DDoS component to their malicious payloads. Security ...

Scam Of The Week: LinkedIn Email Change Your Password

May 21, 2016 10:33:05 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

You probably remember the 2012 LinkedIn data breach. It was a big deal because something like 6.5 million user account passwords were posted online, but LinkedIn never confirmed the final ...

"What methodologies does KnowBe4 use in developing our training?"

May 20, 2016 4:27:44 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Someone interested in using our integrated platform for training and phishing asked us: ""What methodologies does KnowBe4 use in developing our training?" We use the ARCS Model. ARCS is ...

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