What an MSP and their Clients Need to Know about Phishing Simulations

Understanding Phishing Attacks

Definition and Impact

Phishing attacks are a type of social engineering tactic used by cybercriminals to deceive individuals into revealing sensitive information or granting unauthorized access to systems or data. These attacks can significantly impact organizations, resulting in financial losses, reputational damage, and compromised data. Phishing attacks are a prevalent threat, with the number of attacks increasing every year. Security experts have reported a 341% increase in malicious phishing links, business email compromise (BEC), QR code and attachment-based threats in the past six months. (May 2024, InfoSecurity Magazine).

Phishing attacks exploit human psychology, often preying on emotions like fear, curiosity, or urgency. For instance, an attacker might send an email that appears to be from a trusted source, such as a bank or a colleague, urging the recipient to click on a link or download an attachment. Once the recipient takes the bait, the attacker can steal login credentials, install malware, or gain access to sensitive information.

The impact of phishing attacks can be devastating. Financial losses can run into millions of dollars, as seen in high-profile cases like the Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams. Reputational damage can erode customer trust and lead to long-term business consequences. Additionally, compromised data can result in regulatory fines and legal liabilities.

Types of Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks come in various forms, each with its own unique approach to deceiving victims. Understanding these different types can help organizations better prepare and defend against them:

• Email Phishing: The most common type of phishing attack, where attackers send emails that appear to be from legitimate sources. These emails often contain links to fake websites or attachments that install malware.

• Spear Phishing: A more targeted form of phishing, where attackers focus on a specific individual or group. These attacks are often well-researched and highly personalized, making them harder to detect.

• Smishing: This type of attack uses SMS or text messages to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information. The messages often contain links to malicious websites or prompt the recipient to call a fraudulent phone number.

• Vishing: In this type of attack, cybercriminals use voice calls to deceive victims. The attacker might pose as a trusted entity, such as a bank or government agency, to extract sensitive information over the phone.

• CEO Fraud: Also known as Business Email Compromise (BEC), this attack involves cybercriminals impersonating a CEO or high-level executive. The goal is to trick employees into transferring funds or revealing sensitive information.

By understanding these various types of phishing attacks, organizations can implement more effective security measures and training programs to protect their employees and data.

Why Phishing Simulations are Important

Phishing, in all its forms, is the number one social engineering tactic used by cybercriminals. Attackers manipulate people, including employees, to circumvent traditional security: a staggering 96% of data breaches are initiated by a phishing email.

The success of phishing can be seen in increased ransomware attacks and Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams: In 2023, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received a shocking 21,489 BEC complaints, resulting in adjusted losses exceeding $2.9 billion. This means that a single successful BEC attack costs a business an average of $137,132—up from $125,612 last year.

The volume of attacks based on phishing leave companies exposed. How does an organization protect its staff and itself from phishing?

The answer is a mix of technical controls, such as email protection and DNS filtering alongside phishing simulation tools. The latter is becoming increasingly important to augment these technical controls, as cybercriminals use increasingly sophisticated methods to evade detection. Here are why phishing simulations are a must have defense mechanism for all businesses.

What is Phishing Simulation Training?

Cybercriminals create email messages that use psychological tricks to encourage the recipient to act in a certain way. These tricks are clever, often mimicking well-known business brands such as Microsoft Office. For example, a phishing campaign caused a data breach that affected the LA County Department of Mental Health. According to one report, the attacker stole login credentials associated with employees'’ Microsoft Office accounts: 74% of phishing emails are designed to steal login credentials.

Phishing simulators focus on phishing campaign tactics and educate employees about the subtle and sophisticated methods cybercriminals use when attempting to hack into a company. The best phishing simulation software offers a user-friendly interface and realistic phishing templates, helping organizations protect sensitive data from cyber threats by providing tailored solutions for various industries.

Phishing simulations are typically carried out by IT departments or through a managed service provider (MSP).

Phishing simulator tools are typically cloud-based. They consist of exercises designed to resemble phishing campaigns targeting a specific industry or role within an organization.

TitanHQ security awareness training delivers fully automated simulated phishing attacks. The simulated phishing attacks use a library of thousands of phishing email templates, each configurable to reflect a typical and current phishing campaign. This library is regularly updated to ensure that phishing campaigns are current.

What Happens in Simulated Phishing Attacks?

When the IT team or MSP designs a phishing campaign, they typically base it on a current or projected real-world phishing attack. A library of templates allows the spoof phishing campaign to be configured and ready to deliver across the company. These campaigns are performed in department and individual employee roles.

Some employees, such as those with privileged access to sensitive information or employees in accounts payable, HR, and C-level executives, are at high risk of spear-phishing. Advanced simulated phishing platforms, such as TitanHQ SAT, allow simulated phishing campaigns to be designed around these users.

The platform delivers simulated phishing emails to an organization's user population. These simulated phishing emails contain all the attributes of a real-world phishing email, such as malicious links that take the recipient to a spoof website.

For example, suppose the employee clicks on a malicious link, downloads an attachment, or enters credentials into a spoof web page. In that case, they will be presented with a learning exercise to show them why this was a dangerous action and tips to avoid this behavior in the future.

Giving feedback in an educational setting is a successful tactic for positive learning. By understanding where a learner has made a poor security choice, that learner can change their behavior. TitanHQ’s specialized phishing simulation emails—lures—are uniquely designed to protect your organization against ever-increasing cyber threats. By leveraging our comprehensive set of carefully created lures in a phishing simulation, you can raise awareness, build resilience, and help users mitigate the risk of falling victim to a phishing attack.

74% of phishing emails are designed to steal login credentials.

Implementing Phishing Simulations

Choosing the Right Phishing Simulation Software

Implementing phishing simulations is an effective way to train employees to recognize and respond to phishing attacks. However, choosing the right phishing simulation software can be a challenge. Here are some factors to consider when selecting a phishing simulation software:

• Realism: The software should be able to simulate realistic phishing attacks, including emails, SMS, and voice calls. Realistic simulations help employees recognize and respond to actual phishing threats more effectively. 

• Customization: The software should allow for the customization of phishing scenarios to fit the organization’s specific needs. This includes tailoring simulations to different departments, roles, and threat landscapes.

• Ease of Use: The software should be user-friendly and require minimal technical expertise. An intuitive interface ensures the IT team or MSP can easily design and deploy phishing simulations.

• Reporting and Analytics: The software should provide detailed reporting and analytics to help organizations track the effectiveness of their phishing simulation program. Metrics such as click rates, report rates, and response times are crucial for assessing employee performance and identifying areas for improvement.

• Integration: The software should be able to integrate with existing security awareness training programs and systems. Seamless integration ensures that phishing simulations complement other security measures and provide a holistic approach to cybersecurity.

By considering these factors, organizations can choose a phishing simulation software that meets their needs and helps to prevent phishing attacks. An effective phishing simulation program trains employees to recognize and respond to phishing threats and reinforces a culture of security awareness within the organization.

How are Phishing Simulation Tool Success Rates Measured?

Phishing simulation exercises are part of a highly controlled program. Part of this program is collecting data during a phishing simulation exercise. Data includes event capture, such as whether the trainee clicked on a malicious link. These data generate metrics on a per-trainee basis. The MSP or IT team running the phishing simulation tool can track how everyone performs in the simulation exercise and adjust training material based on the metrics.

Metrics from phishing simulators are useful for:

• Feedback for trainees shows them how they are doing in spotting phishing emails and spoofed websites.

• Data will be generated using graphs and other graphics to demonstrate to C-level and board members that security awareness training works.

• Determining the effectiveness of the training to allow tailoring of regular phishing simulation exercises.

Five Phishing Simulation Best Practices

To create an effective simulated phishing exercise, you should follow certain best practices:

1. Role-based phishing: as well as simulated phishing exercises that cover the general tactics fraudsters use, use role-based simulated phishing. Fraudsters are finding success by targeting specific roles in an organization. These are typically individuals with access to privileged corporate network resources or management influence over finances. Replicate the tactic fraudsters use and develop role-based simulated phishing exercises that focus on specific individuals in your organization.

2. Phishing templates that reflect reality: Using regularly updated, ready-made templates to capture new and emerging phishing campaigns will ensure that your simulated phishing exercises reflect the real world of phishing.

3. Test it: perform trial runs of your simulated phishing exercise before rolling it out across your user group. A test run will ensure that you can fix any issues before production.

4. Perform regular simulations: one-off simulated phishing exercises are not enough to ensure your employees are updated with the latest phishing tactics. Fraudsters regularly change their methods to evade detection – this is one of the reasons that social engineering, such as phishing, is so successful. Follow the fraudster’s game by regularly simulating phishing across your employee base.

5. Use the data: use a phishing simulator with extensive metrics built into the system. Capture event data during exercises to inform employees of their progress and finely tune future phishing exercises.

Phishing simulation training is part of a more comprehensive security awareness program. Working with technological controls such as DNS filters and simulated phishing delivers a holistic method of controlling social engineering.

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