Phishing Simulation and Testing Solutions: Everything You Need To Know (FAQs)
What Is Phishing?
Phishing is a type of cyberattack where threat actors attempt to lure users into
- Clicking on a malicious link
- Downloading a malicious file
- Share sensitive information, like financial data or credentials
Traditionally, phishing attacks were sent by email and used a “scatter gun” approach; they would spam hundreds and thousands of accounts with the same attack, in the hope the one or two of the users would fall for it.
Today, phishing is more sophisticated; the attackers researches their target and tried to manipulate them into thinking the message is from a trusted sender, so they’re more likely to interact with it. Plus, while email is still the most common medium for phishing, threat actors today also use SMS, phone calls, and social media to carry out phishing attacks.
What Are The Different Types Of Phishing?
Aside from email phishing, here are some other common types of phishing attack to be aware of:
- Vishing: Voice phishing, or “vishing”, attacks are sent via phone calls or voice notes
- SMiShing: SMiShing attacks are sent via SMS
- Spear phishing: Spear phishing attacks target one specific individual, rather than hundreds of users at once. They often impersonate real employees, and use spoofed domains and other fraudulent material to make the attack more realistic
- Whaling: Whaling is a type of spear phishing used to target a senior individual within an organization, such as a CEO or board member. These attacks are highly specific and target, and often involve impersonation
- Pharming: Pharming attacks redirect users to fake websites, where they’re tricked into typing in sensitive information that is then sent directly to the attacker
How Does Phishing Simulation And Testing Work?
Often delivered as part of a wider security awareness training (SAT) solution, phishing simulations are fake phishing emails sent from IT admins to their company’s end users to test those users’ susceptibility to phishing attacks. Once the email is sent, the user can report it, interact with it, or ignore it. There are two main benefits to this:
- Users can put their security awareness training to practice and identify phishing threats in a secure, real-world way
- IT admins can identify their most vulnerable users based on their responses to phishing tests, and assign further training or step-up security where needed
How Can You Get The Most From Your Phishing Simulation Solution?
Follow these recommendations to make sure your users get the most out of your phishing simulation tool:
- Don’t use simulation in isolation. Most phishing simulation tools are designed to be used alongside a security awareness training platform, which trains your users on how to identify and respond to phishing attacks. If you deploy phishing simulations without giving your users any training, you can still monitor user behavior but you won’t be teaching them how to improve.
- Tailor campaigns to your users. Different users within your organization may face different types of attack depending on their role, department, and seniority. Tailor your campaigns so that they present each user with attacks that they’re likely to experience in real life.
- Update your templates. To make the training as accurate and effective as possible, you should ensure that the simulations are based on current, realistic attacks. Some solutions use threat intelligence feeds to create realistic emails for your automatically.
What Are The Benefits Of Phishing Simulation And Testing?
There are a few reasons why you might want to implement a phishing simulation tool:
- Prevent data breaches: Simulated phishing emails teach your employees how to spot a phishing attack so that they won’t fall victim to a real one. Phishing simulations can also enable admins to identify any individuals or user groups that are more susceptible to attacks, so that you can assign further training to them.
- Monitor your attack rate: Phishing simulation solutions collect data on the success rate of each campaign, such as how many users opened the email, how many users clicked on a link to a “compromised” website or downloaded an attachment, and how many users reported the email. You can use this data to monitor your employees’ learning and your organization’s resilience to phishing over time.
- Motivate your users: Testing employees at the end of their awareness training program can also motivate them to really engage with the program so that they do well in the test. Some simulation solutions take this a step further by turning campaigns into a competition and displaying the results on a leader board.
- Cultivate a culture of security: Continuous awareness training and testing ensure that cybersecurity is always at the forefront of your employees’ minds. Helping employees not only to become aware of the topic but also to actively engage with it will help to foster a culture of security across your entire workforce.
- Ensure compliance: Many regulatory frameworks, including GDPR and PCI, require organizations to undertake security awareness training in order to become compliant. Testing is recommended as a part of this training in order to track progress and improvement over time.
- Minimize insurance premiums: Awareness training can reassure a cybersecurity insurer that you are taking proactive steps to reduce your human risk levels, which in turn can help reduce your insurance premium.
The Best Phishing Simulation And Testing Solutions For Business: Shortlist FAQs
Why should you trust this Shortlist?
This article was written by Alex Zawalynski, the Content Manager at Expert Insights, who works along software experts to research, write, fact-check, and edit articles relating to B2B cyber security and technology solutions.
This list has been edited and reviewed by Expert Insights’ CEO and Founder, Craig McAlpine. Craig has over 25 years’ experience in the cybersecurity industry. In 2003, he founded EPA Cloud, an email security company which was acquired in 2013 by Global (now Ziff Davies Inc).
Craig is an experienced endpoint security practitioner who has worked in cybersecurity management, in an MSP environment, as an email security supplier, and as a vendor in the course of his career.
Research for this guide included:
- Conducting first-hand technical reviews and testing of several dozen leading SAT providers
- Interviewing executives in the phishing simulation space, as well as the wider SAT and email security industries, for first-hand insight into the challenges and strengths of different solutions
- Researching and demoing phishing awareness training solutions over several years
- Speaking to several organizations of all sizes about their phishing simulation challenges and the features that are most useful to them
- Reading third-party and customer reviews from multiple outlets, including paid industry reports
This guide is updated at least every 3 months to review the vendors included and ensure that the features listed are up to date.
Who is this Shortlist for?
Studies have found that 82% of data breaches include a human element, including phishing and the use of stolen credentials, and one in five companies that suffer a malicious data breach is compromised via lost or stolen credentials.
Plus, organizations of all sizes and across all industries are targeted by phishing attacks.
This list has therefore been written with a broad audience in mind.
How was the Shortlist picked?
When considering phishing simulation solutions, we evaluated providers based on the following criterion:
Features: Based on conversations with vendors, end customers, and our own testing, we selected the following key features:
- Customizable phishing simulations: IT teams should be able to send customized, targeted email phishing simulations to individual users or user groups.
- Phishing templates: The solution should offer a library of phishing email templates that admins can sue to create phishing campaigns. These should cover a broad range of attack scenarios and be available in multiple languages. The provider should update this library frequently.
- A ‘report phishing’ button: Users should be able to report simulated phishing emails from directly within their inbox. While some tools also allow users to report genuine phishing threats, this feature wasn’t a requirement for inclusion on this list.
- Admin reporting tools: Admins should be able to view reports into the success of each campaign, including any emails that failed to send, which users have opened simulations, and how users have responded to them.
Note that many products on this Shortlist offer additional features, such as a training content library or some form of interactivity or competition (e.g., a leaderboard or award system). While those are excellent features to offer, they weren’t required for inclusion on this Shortlist, which focuses specifically on phishing simulation and testing.
Market perception: We reviewed each vendor included on the Shortlist to ensure they are reliable, trusted providers in the market. We reviewed their documentation, third-party analyst reports, and—where possible—we have interviewed executives directly.
Customer usage: We use market share as a metric when comparing vendors and aim to represent both high market share vendors and challenger brands with innovative capabilities. We have spoken to end customers and reviewed customer case studies, testimonials, and end user reviews.
Product heritage: Finally, we have looked at where a product has come from in the market, including when companies were founded, their leadership team, their mission statements, and their successes. We have also considered product updates and how regularly new features and training content are added. We have ensured all vendors are credible leaders with a solution we would be happy to use ourselves.
Based on our experience in the SAT and broader email security markets, we have also considered several other factors, such as the benefit of consolidating phishing simulations and awareness training into a single platform, the quality of the admin interface, the customer support on offer, and other use cases.
This list is designed to be a selection of the best phishing simulation and testing providers. Many leading solutions have not been included in this list, with no criticism intended.
