Phishing tests are the catalyst to achieve a sustainable security culture within your organization. They are actually the start of a virtuous cycle that helps you move up to the highest maturity level.
The cycle initiates with Awareness. Phishing tests offer a real-time view into your employees' understanding of phishing threats. They expose your workforce to simulated phishing attempts, making the threat real to them. The immediate feedback from these tests highlights areas for improvement. This lays the groundwork for targeted training sessions.
As awareness broadens, the focus transitions to Behavior. With workforce awareness raised, relevant, engaging training is the tool for behavioral change. A structured, automated training program integrated with the phishing tests addresses identified gaps. Within 90 days, the training results in improved behavior. Your users start to avoid malicious links and report phishing attempts with the Phishing Alert Button (PAB). Their proactive behavior develops into a security-conscious environment. In 12 months their Phish-prone™ Percentage drops from 35% to around 5%,
With improved security behavior, your organization moves from one phase to the next. Your employees—who are the last line of defense when your filters fail—become more vigilant. Increasingly they have security top of mind in their daily operations. This new vigilance creates a robust foundation for tackling other cybersecurity challenges.
Phishing tests ignite a cycle of continuous improvement
A key aspect is the frequency of your phishing tests. To be effective, schedule the randomized phishing tests monthly at a minimum. This minimum level of testing drives increased alertness, education, and improvement. The monthly tests, coupled with training, reinforce the learnings. They keep awareness fresh, and behavior aligned with your security culture.
It is important to recognize that frequent phishing tests ignite a cycle of continuous improvement, creating a workforce that is an actual resilient security asset. For you, rolling this out is a critical layer of your defense-in-depth. It is essential to beat back constant social engineering attacks in a rapidly mutating cyber threat landscape. Download the Security Culture How-to Guide PDF. (no registration required)
