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

[SCAM OF THE WEEK] Summer Scams Your Users Should Watch Out For

Jun 8, 2023 2:27:41 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

While your users are getting ready for their next beach vacation, cybercriminals are preparing for their opportunity to strike. Check Point Research warns about this and common phishing ...

Why Companies Have Great Success Training Employees With Simulated Phishing Tests

Jun 8, 2023 1:25:15 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

We occasionally learn of articles and papers that claim that security awareness training and/or simulated phishing campaigns are not effective. We don’t want to disparage what these ...

Verizon: Pretexting Now Tops Phishing in Social Engineering Attacks

Jun 8, 2023 7:10:48 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

The New Verizon DBIR is a treasure trove of data. As we covered here, and here, people are one of the most common factors contributing to successful data breaches. Let’s drill down a bit ...

Verizon: 74% of Data Breaches Involve the “Human Element”

Jun 8, 2023 6:29:24 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

People are one of the most common factors contributing to successful data breaches. Let’s dive in deeper into the latest Verizon Data-Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) to find out how ...

Smishing Campaign Expands to the Middle East

Jun 7, 2023 1:27:54 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A Chinese-speaking phishing gang has expanded its targeting from the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East, researchers at Group-IB have found. The gang, which the researchers call ...

Verizon: Email Reigns Supreme as Initial Attack Vector for Ransomware Attacks

Jun 7, 2023 1:27:13 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

My analysis of this year’s newly-released Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report begins with ransomware findings that point back to users as a big problem.

North Korean Phishing Campaign Targeting Think Tanks, Academics and Media

Jun 6, 2023 6:28:01 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

The U.S. and South Korean governments have issued a joint advisory outlining a North Korean phishing campaign, The Register reports. The threat actor, known as “Kimsuky,” is targeting ...

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #23 [Wake-Up Call] It's Time to Focus More on Preventing Spear Phishing

Jun 6, 2023 9:00:00 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

CyberheistNews Vol 13 #23 | June 6th, 2023 [Wake-Up Call] It's Time to Focus More on Preventing Spear Phishing Fighting spear phishing attacks is the single best thing you can do to ...

[FBI ALERT] Skin Deep: The Scary Reality of New Deepfake-Enabled Sextortion

Jun 5, 2023 6:27:52 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

Today, the FBI alerted warned against a new even more disgusting type of sextortion. Previously, these schemes involved coerced or stolen digital material, but now some criminals are ...

New Phishing Campaign Uses Hyperlinked Images for Fake Gift Cards and Promotions

Jun 5, 2023 1:35:02 PM By Stu Sjouwerman

A phishing campaign is using hyperlinked images in order to trick users into visiting malicious sites, according to Jeremy Fuchs at Avanan. The emails contain images that offer gift cards ...

Be a Certified Security Awareness and Culture Professional (SACP)™

Jun 5, 2023 10:00:28 AM By Stu Sjouwerman

All, I thought it was necessary to have an independent, vendor-neutral Cert so we would have a real Certified Security Awareness and Culture Professional (SACP)™. I funded the effort ...

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 ...

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