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How do you keep your business safe and secure from phishing? We have been taught not to open malicious links, perhaps to forward a suspicious email to an IT specialist, and this is it. Phishing is the deceptive method of sending emails that seem to be from legitimate companies, such as Microsoft, or from your own company executives, to trick people into divulging sensitive information including credit card details or intellectual property. 

What Is a Phishing Simulation?

A phishing simulation is an exercise that helps you ensure the workers are aware of online manipulations and can identify and prevent them. These immersive phishing exercises can be used as a component of any cybersecurity awareness program.

 The phishing tests can enable the company to put user learning into practice in a realistic situation. Phishing simulations bring a dynamic “training by doing” layer to prevention programs and make it easier for you to train your own army of cyber warriors.

How to Run a Phishing Test or Simulated Phishing: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Create a basic framework

 You’ll have to create a reference point before you start your phishing identification campaign. This will enable you to figure out how vulnerable your organization is to spam mail.

 You could either alert workers that a phishing experiment will be conducted and clarify your expectations and objectives, and you can conduct an unexpected phishing experiment with no prior warning.

 Let go of the pressure to get it “right” on the first attempt. In fact, it may be wise to start with an unannounced test to gauge your team’s existing level of awareness and then conduct a series of tests to address uncovered gaps. Incorporate findings from all previous tests into a baseline to monitor the success of subsequent phishing simulation experiments.

2. Prepare for the phishing experiment

 You should start planning your phishing strategy for the coming year after you’ve built a framework. Employees must be informed and instructed on how to recognize a malicious email and how to react if they receive malicious mail at this level. Free security awareness training is a great place to start for all non-technical employees. 

 The initial phishing checks should be simple to spot, with traditional phishing email features such as: 

• A default welcome
• Misspelled words
• Poor grammar, etc. 

However, as the project continues, the complexity level can rise to illustrate real-world threats.

3. Start releasing the phishing experiment in stages

 The scheduling of your phishing experiment is critical to its effectiveness. Mailing a uniform phishing survey to the entire organization at the same point is a normal blunder as employees who have marked the message as a phish will keep notifying the coworkers.

Instead, plan for a staggered and randomized release of the test emails and make sure to test each employee on at least two different occasions to better determine the gaps in training. Such an approach tends to deliver more consistent and easily interpretable results. 

4. Phishing evaluations should include top officials

 Some individuals have a greater overall vulnerability than others. Due to their greater exposure to sensitive organizational knowledge, CEOs, CFOs, Board Members and accountants are among the most popular phishing victims.

 These people must participate in all phishing exercises, not just to reduce threats but also to show other staff members that they care about network security.

5. Evaluate the results

 The data generated by your phishing experiments is critical in determining whether or not your strategy was accurate. This should assist you in identifying patterns, susceptible personnel, preparation requirements, and possible phishing test preparation.

Benefits of Phishing Simulation

Decreased malicious activity  

 As the employees get more experienced in detecting phishing attempts, data theft will decrease.

Enforcement and instruction 

 A variety of data security and confidentiality laws now actively require a company to conduct security training that includes simulated phishing.

Higher risk incident monitoring  

 Simulated phishing as a component of the safety awareness practice will assist in the development of individual safeguards. You will create a positive security environment within the company if you have a surveillance strategy that includes simulated phishing and monitoring procedures.

What are the Features of a Simulating Phishing?

 A good phishing simulation should have the following features.

• Quick target maintenance
• A project manual
• Auto-Enrollment on error
• Reporting capabilities
• Editor with a lot of features
• A reference collection 
• Alerts in Real-Time
• Webhooks and API.

If you’ve set up your phishing awareness session, it’s essential to maintain regularity. Developing a situation of sensitivity requires time and cannot be done by a one-off yearly training session. Frequent phishing exercises can help raise awareness, increase sensitivity and recognize any points of vulnerability that may pose a danger to the safety of the organization.

Still not sure where to start with your first simulated phishing test? Contact your IT experts at 3nom today to plan your experiment and improve your data security.