Phishing is the oldest (since internet) and probably the simplest trick up a hacker’s sleeve. That simplicity is now being challenged by the black hats that are creating more complex (meaning real-looking) websites, and emails that look more legit than ever.

The ability of these phishes to bypass spam filters can put your company’s business at a significant risk, particularly if it maintains any kind of server-based database. As we have talked before, in any security system, the weakest link is the user. Your employees’ role becomes more grave here, as the whole premise of phishing hacks is based on fooling human users.

The solution is in educating your employees by performing phishing email tests or simulating phishing attacks.

Simulated email spoofing test helps you understand the status of hacking, or internet security related awareness in your employees. In general, the testing expert will create phishing campaigns and repeatedly attack the employees. The goal will be to get the user to enter the required, personal credentials, or to get her to download a malicious file (or attachment) from the email. As soon as this happens, the user will be considered compromised, and in the analysis will be counted against the number of employees with lack of awareness.

Now even if your employees’ awareness to lack of it ratio turns out to be low, it can be remedied. After the test, the time is right for you to implement an awareness or education programme. An impactful workshop, or information material can effectively increase the awareness levels, and as they pertain to malicious emails, ultimately making your system more secure.

Read this to know more about Security Awareness Training. :

Measurements are really important in any phishing test, and cannot be a one time affair. You need to implement a plan that helps you measure improvement in employee awareness and alertness. This could mean taking randomized tests every month, and random intervals, to minimize bias in the data.

It’s important to note that if your employee user-base is large, as in more than 20, it might be better to employee a dedicated expert on contractual basis, or to hire a cyber security awareness agency.

After reading this article, it might be clear to you as to why a phishing vulnerability test might be crucial in keeping your company’s business data secure, and also, its future.

For more information on penetration testing, IT security and IT Project Management,IT Hardware and software asset management, TBS Networks is your best bet. Get in touch with us to know more.