KnowBe4 Unveils New Phishing Benchmark Data and Showcases Most At-Risk Industries

TAMPA BAY, Fla., Jan. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KnowBe4, provider of the world's largest new-school security awareness and simulated phishing platform, released a breakthrough study of phishing statistics for top industries, showing small insurance companies have the highest percentage of "Phish-prone" employees in the small to mid–size organization category. Not-for-profit organizations take the lead in large organizations (1,000 or more employees). The study shows these types of organizations rank higher (in the low thirty percentiles) than the overall average of twenty seven percent across all industries and size organizations. Large business services organizations had the lowest Phish-prone benchmark at nineteen percent.

The Phish-prone percentage is determined by the number of employees that click a simulated phishing email link or open an infected attachment during a testing campaign using the KnowBe4 platform.

The study, drawn from a data set of more than six million users across nearly 11,000 organizations, benchmarks real-world phishing results. Results show a radical drop of careless clicking to just 13 percent 90 days after initial training and simulated phishing and a steeper drop to two percent after 12 months of combined phishing and computer based training (CBT).

The study anonymously tracks users by company size and industry at three points: 1) a baseline phishing security test, 2) results after 90 days of combined CBT and simulated phishing, and 3) the result after one year of combined CBT and phishing.

"In the past seven years, we've helped thousands of customers enable their employees to make smarter security decisions. Since we've reached the milestone of 15,000 customers, we've built a massive database to analyze and decided it was time to conduct a new analysis of average Phish-prone percentages," said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4.  "The new research uncovered some surprising and troubling results. However, it also demonstrates the power of deploying new-school security awareness training by lowering a 27 percent Phish-prone result to just over two percent."

Rankings by industry for initial Phish-prone percentage include:

According to Sjouwerman (pronounced "shower-man"), "Ninety-eight percent of cyber-attacks rely on social engineering and email phishing is the bad guys' preferred method. Attackers go for the low-hanging fruit: humans. Humans are the de-facto No. 1 choice for cybercriminals seeking to gain access into an organization. New-school security awareness training which includes frequent simulated social engineering testing is a proven method to dramatically slash an organization's Phish-prone percentage. Effectively managing this problem requires commitment and C-level buy-in, but it can be done and isn't difficult."

For further information about KnowBe4 visit https://www.knowbe4.com

About KnowBe4

KnowBe4, provider of the world's largest integrated new-school security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 15,000 organizations worldwide. Founded by data- and IT-security expert Stu Sjouwerman, with backing from Elephant Partners and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness of ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to security awareness training. Kevin Mitnick, internationally recognized computer-security expert and KnowBe4's Chief Hacking Officer, helped design KnowBe4's training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Thousands of organizations leverage KnowBe4 to enable their workforce to make smarter security decisions and create a human firewall as an effective last line of defense.

KnowBe4 is ranked #231 on the 2017 Inc. 500 list, #70 on Deloitte's 2017 Technology Fast 500 and #6 in Cybersecurity Ventures Cybersecurity 500. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida with European offices in London and Amsterdam. For more info, visit http://www.knowbe4.com and follow Stu on Twitter at @StuAllard.

Media Contact: Kathy Wattman, [email protected], 727-474-9950; Jennifer Jewett, 617-913-2404, [email protected] 

SOURCE KnowBe4 Inc.