Test Employees

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Phishing simulations provide quantifiable results that can be measured. Our available simulations include SMS Phishing, Corporate Phishing (simulated e-mails that appear to come from “inside” your own organization), Board Member Spear Phishing (target a handful of senior individuals in a position of influence) Ransomware Simulation, Personal Phishing (simulations aimed to use well-known brands like Amazon, Apple, eBay, etc.), and many more techniques. These measurements allow improvement to be identified and tracked. The consultative approach our team takes will ensure all phishing simulations and campaigns are bespoke to the threats facing your organization. Prior to the phishing simulation, the needs and objectives are clarified and coordinated with the planned activities. The goal is to define the key elements of the campaign:

• Attack or educate first? A simulation test may start with introductory training where employees are educated about e-mail safety and phishing implications. An organization may also set up an anti-phishing e-mail account where employees can readily share their experiences, suspicions, and other requirements concerning cyber threats before starting the simulation.
• Frequency of the simulation: Simulation frequency should be adjusted based on perceived threats. User coverage and simulation frequency should be determined in correlation to the perceived risk (e.g., Finance & Payments – 2 themes / X months, senior leadership – 1 theme / X months). High risk functions / departments and individuals handling important roles in the organization should be covered more frequently as part of the simulation.
• Length of the simulation: Most phishing simulation tests are usually planned out over a period of 12 months. However, there can be certain ad-hoc campaigns which are situational.
• Timing—when to send e-mails? When planning the campaign for each function / department or individual, phishing e-mails should be innitiated with the elements “Day of the week” and “Time of the day.”
• Following Up: A phishing simulation campaign may need to be followed up by relevant e-mails from the IT department informing involved employees about the reality of phishing e-mails and what is expected of them in return. If users are repeatedly failing, plan a discussion with them to understand what difficulties they are experiencing and why. Accordingly, arrange for awareness / training sessions for those users.
• Consistency with current policies: Once implemented, the process needs to be executed evenly to everyone in scope. Integration into existing information security policies and procedures will also help to give additional importance to the campaign.
• Choose the right phishing theme: Please see next section.
• Corporate communication: Before initiating the phishing simulation campaign, work out a communication plan about the phishing simulation with the head of function / department. Employees need to be made aware of the new process, what the expectations are, what the consequences of non-compliance include, and when it takes effect.
• Targeted group: If the campaign targets a large group of users belonging to the same function / department, they might inform others in the group. Therefore, phishing e-mails should not be forwarded to the entire company as it sparks suspicion. Instead, the process should be organic and must target a small group of select employees at any one time.
• Ensure top level commitment: Management support is critical to ensuring that the process is effective. Therefore, higher-tier users need to have a willingness to follow through.
• Technical preparations: White-listing of phishing domains, creation of test accounts, mail delivery tests are some of the activities that need to be carefully planned.

In every phishing simulation activity the theme plays an important part in meeting the end objective of educating users on real threats. To provide a real-world experience and awareness the selected phishing simulation theme should align with an event or context relevant to the targeted individual or group. Here are some points to consider for effective simulation activities:

• Any theme chosen for a phishing simulation should be aligned with business context and perceived risk to the user’s role / function / department.
• The selected phishing simulation theme should have relevance to the targeted individual or group.
• To achieve better results and learning experience, the complexity of the selected theme should be gradually brought to a higher level.
• Starting with a highly complex phishing theme will make many fail and will not achieve the end objective.
• Each deceiving element of a phishing e-mail needs to be combined with other tricks typically used by attackers (e.g., look-alike domain with camouflaged hyperlink, spoofed domain with double extension file, etc.).
• Each simulation activity should be time bound; contextual themes conducted outside of a defined timeline will lose their value.

The LUCY phishing simulation can be combined with services that will help the company to better assess the risk. Here are a few examples:

• Individual trainings: Each employee can be individually trained in advance or directly as a follow-up to the attack simulation. The contents of the training courses can be adapted to the existing company policies. Interactive tests can record the level of knowledge.
• Mail and web filter test: It provides technical analysis of the possible entry channels for malware. Which file types can be delivered via e-mail? Which dangerous file types can be downloaded?
• Local security test: What is the effective risk if an employee executes a dangerous file type? How well does technical protection work to prevent data leakage?
• Analysis of attack potential: Which sensitive employee information can be viewed on the Internet? What do employees communicate via a company e-mail address when on the Internet?
• Analysis of security culture: The current security culture is to be recorded and evaluated by means of interviews, surveys, and analyses of existing guidelines.
• Darknet analysis: We search the Darknet for existing data leaks and thus show a comprehensive risk picture, which does not only include the inside view.
• Fully managed repeating campaigns: Do you prefer recurring campaigns that are completely managed by us? You are welcome to outsource the topic IT Security Awareness completely to us.