Learn All About Phishing Simulation and Why your Business Needs One

When thinking about cybersecurity, business owners typically consider external threats like malware, man-in-the-middle attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and others. However, leaders tend to occasionally overlook the internal hazards posed by their staff to the security posture of their organisation.

Are employees the biggest cyber threat?

The weakest link in your organization's security system can be its employees. Your staff members can be using the same passwords across many accounts, leaving your business network open to threats. Others might connect to your network using unprotected public Wi-Fi hotspots, giving hackers access to your systems. Additionally, some users could unintentionally fall victim to phishing attacks, sharing their account information with unauthorised persons. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner claims that the majority of data breaches are the result of such lax security procedures.?

Your business should regularly train personnel on security awareness in order to reduce these threats. By accomplishing this, you can make them your company's front line defense.?However, giving cybersecurity lectures is not enough. It is best to run phishing simulations to test the knowledge of your staff members.

What is a phishing simulation?

Phishing simulation is the test of sending fake fraudulent emails to employees and watching who clicks on them . This exercise allows you to determine whether staff need additional training by testing their awareness of and ability to recognise phishing scams.

Why should Australian companies conduct phishing simulations?

Based on ReportCyber’s?figures, fraud cybercrime — mostly phishing scams — is the most reported type of cybercrime for the financial years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021.?

Compared to other countries,?Australia fared the worst at defending against phishing attacks, with 92% of its organisations falling victim to such attacks?in 2021 — up by 53% from 2020. In 2021, one in five Australian organisations also suffered ten or more successful phishing attacks — more than any other country.?

Overall, the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s?Annual Cyber Threat Report 2020–21?found that cyberattacks against Australian organisations continue to increase in frequency, scale, and sophistication over the years. While spam filters can effectively block some phishing emails, newer and more sophisticated ones still manage to get through.?

The good news is that you can quickly and easily mimic a variety of realistic and difficult phishing assaults by utilising cutting-edge solutions like Sophos Phish Threat.

What should you look for in a phishing simulation tool?

Before you invest in a phishing simulation tool, make sure it has the following features:?

Phishing email templates

Many phishing simulation tools let you craft your fake phishing emails from scratch or use customisable templates. Sophos Phish Threat, in particular, has over 500 email threat templates of various difficulty levels, from beginner to expert. As part of Sophos’s comprehensive line of cybersecurity solutions, this phishing simulation tool is constantly updated. Data is based on the millions of emails, URLs, files, and others SophosLabs analysts gather worldwide, daily. Sophos Phish Threat simulates even the latest phishing tactics, so you can be sure your company’s training stays relevant.?

In-depth simulation results reporting

Phishing simulation tools offer post-test reports. These show how many employees failed the current test, who are most at risk, and your organisation’s overall risk level. You can view such data at a glance using Sophos Phish Threat’s dashboard, which also displays other details like:?

• Number of users who successfully reported the phishing campaign (i.e., reporters)
• Organisational trends of reporters and non-reporters (i.e., users who failed the test)
• Testing coverage
• Days since the last phishing campaign

Integrated training

The best phishing simulation tools provide on-the-spot training to non-reporters so they can learn when they interact with a mock phishing email. Such testing and training integration is available in Sophos Phish Threat. Not only that but this tool is also packed with over 30 security awareness training modules, tackling both security and compliance topics.?

You can also connect Sophos Phish Threat with Sophos Email to identify who were warned or blocked from visiting a website due to its risk profile. You can automatically enroll them into targeted phishing simulations and training to mitigate your company’s security risk.?

Are you interested in leveraging Sophos Phish Threat? You can turn to Empower IT Solutions. As a Gold Sophos partner, we can boost your company’s cyber defences by deploying Sophos Phish Threat and other advanced security solutions.?Get in touch with us today.?