What is Phishing Simulation?

Phishing simulation guards your business against social-engineering threats by training your employees to identify and report them. Cybercriminals use phishing, the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as credit card details and login credentials, by disguising as a trustworthy organization or reputable person in an email communication. Phishing emails are also used to distribute malware and spyware through links or attachments that can steal information and perform other malicious tasks.

Typically a part of user security awareness, phishing simulation training is one of the cyber security measures being used to help stop attempted phishing incidents. Phishing is popular with cybercriminals because it enables them to steal financial and personal information by exploiting human behavior. Due to the fact that just one mistake by one employee clicking on one link could result in fraud, a data breech, huge costs, and damage the company’s reputation, user security awareness is now widespread; employers are educating workers about the latest attack techniques and testing them with phishing simulations to help protect their businesses against cybercrimes.

How Phishing Simulation Works

Phishing simulation helps employees recognize, avoid, and report potential threats that can compromise critical business data and systems, including phishing, malware, ransomware, and spyware. As a part of user security awareness, phishing simulation training provides employees with the information they need to understand the dangers of social engineering, detect potential attacks, and take the appropriate actions to protect your business with security best practices.

Anti-phishing and security training solutions show employees the different types of attacks, how to recognize the subtle clues and report suspicious emails to your IT department. As part of the training, phishing simulations and other mock attacks are typically used to test and reinforce good employee behavior. Advanced solutions provide highly-variable attack simulations for multiple vectors, including voice, text messages and found physical media. Vishing, or voice phishing, uses a telephone message to try to get potential victims to call back with their personal information. Cybercriminals often use fake caller-ID information to make the calls appear to be from a legitimate organization or business. Smishing, also known as SMS phishing, uses text messages to try to lure victims into revealing account information or installing malware.

Continuous simulation and training help your employees fight phishing attacks and other cyber security threats.

Why Phishing Simulation is Important

As businesses continue to deploy anti-phishing strategies and educate their users about cyber security, cybercriminals continue to improve phishing attacks and develop new scams. These evolving and sophisticated attack techniques, designed to fool employees, put your business at risk for data loss, financial fraud, and embarrassing exposure. Phishing simulation protects your business by helping to stop the potentially-devastating attacks that can slip through security gateways.