10 Best Practices for an effective phishing simulation program


Research shows that ad hoc, scattershot attempts at training staff subgroups is largely ineffective. To bolster internal defenses against sophisticated phishing threats, you must train 100% of your employee population every single month. This becomes more complicated as teams grow and are spread across various locations. Yet opting for anything less than total workforce training leads to piecemeal results, leaving security ‘holes’ in the form of gullible employees. The worst part: incomplete workforce coverage means not knowing some employees’ current awareness of threats, potentially missing the weakest links that put the organization at greatest risk. By the time hackers exploit them, you’ll be running internal and external emergency triage with company leadership, HR, and PR staff.

There’s a limited window of time in which lessons derived from training will have the strongest long-term impact on employees. This is the ‘golden moment’—the instance in which providing timely, engaging, and effective content can make a lasting impression, versus having to enforce follow-up training sessions that are often perceived as random, irrelevant, and less memorable—let alone harder to enforce. Associating risks with specific employee behaviors is key. Staff who experience just-in-time learning are more likely to retain critical knowledge and awareness of risk factors, and better able to respond accordingly in future attack scenarios. In essence, companies must ensure that any employees who fall for a simulation immediately engage in a training session that covers the mistakes they’ve made.

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