KnowBe4 releases a new tool aimed to test employees in a phishing scenario

KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, announced a new, complimentary tool aimed to gauge how many employees will reply to a phishing email called the Phishing Reply Test (PRT).

Highly targeted phishing attacks, known as Business Email Compromise or CEO fraud are used by the bad guys to impersonate a C-level executive and trick high-risk users, often Accounting, HR, or Executive teams and even IT because they own the keys to the kingdom.

PRT is a web-based tool that cybersecurity professionals can use to test employees on these common scenarios for targeted attacks used by the bad guys.

The IT Pro can select and send an email template to users under the guise of a trusted sender within the organization and phishes for a response.

This tool provides insight into how many of an organization’s users will fall for this type of phishing scenario so that proper training can be administered to help prevent an actual phishing attack.

“At KnowBe4, it’s our goal to make the jobs of cybersecurity professionals easier by providing them with tools to help better train their users,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4.

“Our new Phishing Reply Test tool will help educate users on the importance of always verifying requests for sensitive and/or confidential information before hitting the reply button.”

The majority of impersonated email attacks do not involve any link: it’s simply a plan text email. The problem with this type of attack is that people can unknowingly provide sensitive and/or confidential information to the bad guys.

These highly targeted attacks are clever because they bypass traditional approaches to email security which focus on scanning and filtering the content of the email.

These spoofed emails contain no links, no attachments. They are pure social engineering attacks that target users and their vulnerability to deception.

In July 2018, the FBI reported that organizations have lost over $12.5 billion since 2013 through the use of technically simple, but very effective emails that impersonate C-level executives or other high-profile employees.