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

Warning: Sharing Data with ChatGPT Can Be Misused Outside Your Organization

Jun 2, 2023 3:14:45 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A new study found that ChatGPT can accurately recall any sensitive information fed to it as part of a query at a later date without controls in place to protect who can retrieve it.

Verification and Deepfake Fraud Trends in North America

Jun 2, 2023 3:14:33 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Forced verification fraud and deepfake fraud are on the rise in the US and Canada, according to researchers at Sumsub. Pavel Goldman-Kalaydin, Sumsub’s Head of AI & ML, explains that ...

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #22 [Eye on Fraud] A Closer Look at the Massive 72% Spike in Financial Phishing Attacks

May 31, 2023 9:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #22 | May 31st, 2023 [Eye on Fraud] A Closer Look at the Massive 72% Spike in Financial Phishing Attacks With attackers knowing financial fraud-based phishing ...

Spear Phishing Trends in 2023

May 31, 2023 8:57:49 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

50% of organizations surveyed were victims of spear phishing attacks in the last twelve months, according to a new report from Barracuda. The report also found that, on average, ...

Russian Ransomware Cybercriminal Behind $200 Million in Damages is Sanctioned by the U.S. Government

May 31, 2023 8:11:37 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has identified and designated Mikhail Matveev for his role in ransomware attacks back 2021.

AI Voice-Based Scams Rise as One-Third of Victims Can’t Tell if the Voice is Real or Not

May 31, 2023 8:11:24 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

As audio deepfake technology continues to go mainstream as part of the evolution in AI-based tools, new data shows there are plenty of victims and they aren’t prepared for such an attack.

The Bookmark Trap: How Discord Admins Fell Prey to Social Engineering

May 31, 2023 6:52:20 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Brian Krebs wrote: "A number of Discord communities focused on cryptocurrency have been hacked this past month after their administrators were tricked into running malicious Javascript ...

[EPIC AI FAIL] Lawyer cites fake cases invented by ChatGPT

May 30, 2023 2:01:50 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Found this highly amusing article: Legal Twitter is having tremendous fun right now reviewing the latest documents from the case Mata v. Avianca, Inc. (1:22-cv-01461). Here’s a neat ...

“Magic Link” Phishing Attacks Scamming Users With Fake McAfee Renewals

May 30, 2023 9:08:34 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Threat actors are using encoded phishing links to evade security filters, according to Jeremy Fuchs at Avanan. The phishing emails purport to be notifications from McAfee informing the ...

[Mastering Minds] China's Cognitive Warfare Ambitions Are Social Engineering At Scale

May 26, 2023 1:40:02 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

As the world continues to evolve, so does the nature of warfare. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is increasingly focused on "Cognitive Warfare," a term referring to artificial ...

Your KnowBe4 Fresh Content Updates from May 2023

May 26, 2023 8:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Check out the 20 new pieces of training content added in May, alongside the always fresh content update highlights, events and new features.

Verizon Sends New Smishing Warning

May 25, 2023 2:38:23 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Verizon has renewed its warnings to customers about the threat of smishing, a social engineering approach that relies upon texts as opposed to other communication channels like the email ...

[SEG Headache] More Than Half of Cybersecurity Leaders Say That Too Many Phishing Attacks Get Through

May 25, 2023 6:52:59 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Egress, a cybersecurity company that provides intelligent email security, recently released their Email Security Risk Report 2023.

Financial Fraud Phishing Attacks Increase 72% In One Year; Financial Industry Takes the Brunt

May 24, 2023 8:52:51 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

With attackers knowing financial fraud-based phishing attacks are best suited for the one industry where the money is, this massive spike in attacks should both surprise you and not ...

BatLoader Malware is Now Distributed in Drive-By Attacks

May 24, 2023 8:52:37 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Malign persuasion can take many forms. We tend to hear the most about phishing (malicious emails) or smishing (malicious texts). Other threats are also worth some attention, like the risk ...

More Than Half of all Email-Based Cyberattacks Bypass Legacy Security Filters

May 24, 2023 8:52:19 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

New data shows that changes in cybercriminals’ phishing techniques are improving their game, making it easier to make their way into a potential victim user’s inbox.

[Hands-On Defense] Unpatched Software Causes 33% of Successful Attacks

May 23, 2023 9:55:26 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

As you all know, KnowBe4 frequently promotes security awareness training and we also mention that unpatched software is a distant number two issue after social engineering.

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #21 [Double Trouble] 78% of Ransomware Victims Face Multiple Extortions in Scary Trend

May 23, 2023 9:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #21 | May 23rd, 2023 [Double Trouble] 78% of Ransomware Victims Face Multiple Extortions in Scary Trend New data sheds light on how likely your organization will ...

[Microsoft Warning] A 38% Spike In Business Email Compromise with new Cybercrime-as-a-Service

May 23, 2023 8:50:06 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

Microsoft has observed a thirty-eight percent increase in cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) offerings for launching business email compromise (BEC) attacks between 2019 and 2022.

AI-generated Disinformation Dipped The Markets Yesterday

May 23, 2023 6:52:11 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The Insider reported that an apparently AI-generated photo faking an explosion near the Pentagon in D.C. went viral. The Arlington Police Department confirmed that the image and ...

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