One of the best defenses against phishing attacks is training. By teaching your employees how to recognize and report phishing attempts, you can help keep your company safe from hackers. But with so many training options available, how do you choose the right one for your business? We’ve compiled a list of the best phishing training options to help you decide.

What Is Phishing Awareness Training?

Phishing awareness training is a program that helps employees learn how to identify and avoid phishing emails. These emails are designed to lure employees into clicking on a phishing link or opening an infected file.

Phishing awareness training can help employees stay safe online by teaching them how to:

Recognize fake emails
Protect their passwords
Identify social engineering attacks
Spot fraudulent websites

Phishing training for employees can also help them understand the risks of sharing personal information online.

Why You Should Offer Phishing Training for Employees

People are often the weakest link in an organization’s cybersecurity posture. Phishing attacks involve tricking employees into revealing sensitive information or clicking on malicious links, which is a common way for cybercriminals to gain access to company networks.

That’s why organizations need to offer phishing training for employees. Training can help employees learn how to identify phishing emails and protect themselves from becoming victims of these attacks.

In addition to training, there are other things that organizations can do to protect their networks from phishing attacks, such as implementing a strong cybersecurity policy and using anti-phishing tools.

But education is key, and companies must train their employees to avoid cyber risk and stay safe online.

Top Security Awareness Training Options

Here are the top options for simulated phishing campaigns and security awareness training programs:

1. KnowBe4

KnowBe4’s Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training (KMSAT) allows you to run tests regularly with real-life examples of malicious emails. You can start by testing how prone your employees are to phishing, then move on to train them.

KMSAT includes a mix of interactive modules, videos, and newsletters to train users. You also get insights into employee performance to assign additional training if needed.

2. Infosec Institute

Phishing simulations and training from Infosec Institute have over 1,000 templates to build simulated campaigns. And that library is updated regularly to simulate recent and ongoing attacks.

With Infosec, you can provide personalized anti-phishing training to your employees on auto-pilot. Once you configure the schedule, users start receiving the simulated emails and training videos automatically.

3. Phished Phishing Simulations

Phished delivers interactive cybersecurity education with the help of automated simulations. With Phished Phishing Simulations, you can train employees to spot phishing emails and smishing (SMS phishing) attacks. The knowledge is imparted through a series of micro-learnings.

It sends AI-driven simulations and reports back with the results. The entire sequence is automated. So, you can set it up and forget.

4. PhishingBox Phishing Simulator

PhishingBox simulator uses test phishing attacks to train employees. It provides a range of templates and landing pages for quick setup.

With PhishingBox Phishing Simulator, you can ensure your employees are fully prepared for an attack. PhishingBox also has a Learning Management System (LMS) to monitor everyone’s progress.

5. Gophish Open-Source Phishing Framework

Gophish is a phishing framework to help you test how phishing-prone your organization is. This free tool can design phishing email templates and schedule them. And then, you can track the results in near real-time.

Unlike other tools, Gophish doesn’t have a host of complex features. It’s a minimal and intuitive program designed just for testing.

6. Infosequre Phishing Simulation

Infosequre has many premade scenarios with realistic phishing emails and text messages. You can use exercises of Infosequre Phishing Simulation to track your employees’ capability and presence of mind. The platform sends custom exercises and feedback depending on how someone acts.

You can use your own dedicated server. So, no one outside your organization can access your information, phishing tests, and feedback.

7. Proofpoint

Proofpoint Security Awareness Training is the key to cyber defense. You can use it to train your team to identify and report phishing messages. It helps make everyone better aware of the cyber threats looming in the air.

With Proofpoint Security Awareness Training, you can run phishing USB simulations based on real-world threats, get knowledge and culture assessments, and get a report that identifies your top clickers.

8. Terranova

Terranova’s Phishing Simulation leverage dynamic content in various formats to engage the users. It helps you identify the employees at the most risk and make them aware of it.

With its simulation, you can create mock phishing attacks to train your employees for D-day. You can empower them with all the skills to recognize and report phishing emails.

9. SafeTitan Plus Phishing Protection

SafeTitan is an advanced platform for real-time training. It has several templates to automate your training campaign fully. Each user gets personalized training depending on their test responses.

The program uses short gamified tests to create an interactive and enjoyable environment for employee training. The content library of SafeTitan Plus Phishing Protection also has an extensive amount of training resources.

10. Hook Security

Hook Security’s phishing training toolkit is a complete training resource for your most significant asset: the employees. It uses a series of bite-sized training modules to make learning easy.

With Hook’s Phishing Testing, you can easily set up mock tests for phishing and spear phishing attacks. Employees get instant feedback and learn to make themselves better aware of the risks. And you get comprehensive reporting to drill down into specifics.

What Are Phishing Attacks Exercises?

Phishing attack exercises are a type of mock cyber-attacks in which the attacker attempts to acquire login credentials by masquerading as a legitimate entity in emails or other communication channels. Phishing attack exercises or phishing tests are often used in training simulations for employees of organizations.

How Much Does Phishing Training Cost?

It depends on the organization. While a few smaller companies may only spend $500 or less per year, the average medium-sized company spends about $1,600 annually, and large organizations can spend up to $50,000 or more.

Several phishing awareness training options are available, ranging from online tutorials and self-paced courses to live classroom sessions led by expert instructors. Organizations should consider their specific needs and pick the phishing training program that suits their requirements.

Does Phishing Training Work?

Yes. Phishing training definitely works, but it’s crucial to ensure that the phishing awareness training is practical and provides employees with the knowledge they need to protect themselves from phishing attacks.

Image: Envato Elements

This article, “Best Phishing Training Options for You and Your Employees” was first published on Small Business Trends