Summary: When it comes to combating cyber security threats in your organization, preparation and prevention become the most important things to do. This is because a single human error can potentially cause a devastating damage to your organization if you are not careful. For instance, a single phishing email responded by your employee can result in a big data breach within your organization network. This is where KnowBe4 becomes very important to use, as it provides the security awareness training needed by your organization to prevent phishing attacks and other security threats.
Nowadays, cyber attacks can threaten any organization, and it can lurk from anywhere. As long as you can’t predict the attack, it becomes very important for any organization to get prepared in order to prevent any type of cyber attacks that can be detrimental for their business operations. In the moment of a data breach, not only the company’s important data but also the customer’s important data will be at risk. As a company or organization, it is your responsibility to ensure that you can keep your important data under guard at all times.
One of the most common type of cyberattacks that may be launched against an organization is phishing attack. It will target your users or employees, and they will attempt to steal any private information by taking advantage of their carelessness. Phishing attack is one of the most common causes of the data breach in a company or organization. Usually, the breach got through because one employee or one user became careless with the emails that they receive, thus they inadvertently clicked a link on a phishing email, which leads to a fake website designed to steal their important information, such username and password.
This is why it is important for any organization to train their users in dealing with phishing attacks and various other cyber threats. By training your users or employees and teach them about the cyber security best practices, you can minimize the risk of phishing attacks and other types of cyberattacks, as well as preventing them from gaining access to your company’s data without your authorization. This is where KnowBe4 becomes important, as it provides a complete training program for your organization to prevent, as well as mitigate the risks of phishing attacks and other cyber security threats.
We have interviewed Stu Sjouwerman, Founder and CEO of KnowBe4, Inc., to explain to us about how KnowBe4 can benefit companies and organizations in dealing with phishing attacks and other security threats.
The Background History of KnowBe4
As a security awareness training platform, KnowBe4 was founded in 2010 by Stu Sjouwerman, an IT and data security specialist. This platform is designed to help organizations fight against phishing attacks and various other cyber security threats by giving their users the best training program on cyber security. This is a platform where organizations can conduct cyber security training programs for their employees so that the people that run, manage, and operate the organization don’t succumb into any of the known cyber security threats that can cost the company big damages on various aspects.
Nowadays, Knowbe4 has been used by more than 28,000 organizations around the world, providing them with the necessary security awareness training system that can protect their organization from various types of cyberattacks. The platform itself is designed by a well-known cyber security specialist, Kevin Mitnick. We started the interview by asking Stu about the background history of KnowBe4,
“KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 28,000 organizations around the globe. Founded by IT and data security specialist Stu Sjouwerman in 2010, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. Kevin Mitnick, an internationally recognized cybersecurity specialist and KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer, helped design the KnowBe4 training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Tens of thousands of organizations rely on KnowBe4 to mobilize their end users as the last line of defense.”
The Common Challenges on Cyber Security Today
Cyber security is continuously evolving day by day. There are more security tools and solutions being offered to individuals and organizations to enhance their online security and privacy protection. However, the constant improvements in cyber security didn’t appear by itself. These improvements happen because cyber security threats are also evolving day by day. Every day, new threats on online security are being discovered, and hackers are being more creative in the way they launch their attacks.
On top of that, cyber security faces common challenges that make it difficult for security providers to protect their clients from cyber security attacks. For instance, phishing attacks use more sophisticated social engineering strategies to lure their victims into clicking the links contained in the phishing emails. To add more complexity to the situation, many employees or users don’t know very well about cyber security threats that are lurking each and every day. Stu explained to us about the common challenges on cyber security today,
“A lack of resources, overworked security professionals, careless end users, patching systems, focusing on the wrong security controls and increased complexity of social engineering attacks.”
The Reasons Why Cyber Security Threats are Still Challenging Despite the Advancements in Cyber Security Protection Measures
When it comes to cyber security threats, what makes them still becoming a challenge for any cyber security protection system is the involvement of social engineering strategies. Hackers now use these social engineering strategies to trick their victims into taking an action after reading their email. This has been done a lot of time in phishing attacks, where hackers keep on refining their social engineering methods, and they even try to personalize their attacks, which can be very effective for their targeted victims.
With the increased complexity in social engineering that is being employed in various cyberattacks of today, it is becoming increasingly challenging for any security protection system to prevent such attacks. Even when there are good security protection tools in place, a single human error can make such tools seem useless. This is why KnowBe4 puts more emphasis in dealing with the security threats that use social engineering to trick their victims. Stu explained to us about why cyber security threats are still challenging today,
“Cybersecurity threats are still a challenge because social engineering is so effective because it involves human psychology and plays on a number of emotions. Often times, the bad guys will send a message that looks legitimate and it will trigger emotions in the end user, enticing them to click or download an attachment. At the end of the day, the bad guys are getting more and more clever and organized. They are constantly refining their attacks and coming up with new ways to trick end users all the time.”
The Evolution in the Cyber Security Landscape and the Future of It
In the past, organizations might employ the strategy to ensure that they are protected by various cyber security threats by having an annual security awareness training for their company. As the attacks were still quite simple to detect, there were no need for any advanced techniques of defense against cyber security threats. However, nowadays, the security awareness training needs to be included in any organization’s security measures since the threats are becoming more complex and more sophisticated.
Today, security awareness training needs to be held regularly in order to give the employees of any organization or company the heads up against the newest security threats. This is what KnowBe4 is doing in protecting their users from the more sophisticated cyberattacks. In the future, this security awareness training platform will keep on adapting as new threats are discovered and identified. Stu explained in his viewpoints about the evolution in cyber security landscape and the future of it,
“While the same basic tactics are deployed, the resulting damage is significantly worse than in the past. To deal with the threat, we’ve witnessed a shift from old-school, annual security awareness training as a nice-to-have or compliance checkbox item to new-school security awareness training that is a key part of the overarching layered security defense program.
As the attacks become more complicated, our training methods and defensive techniques will also have to continue to evolve to keep up with the new threats. Technologies such as deepfakes will continue to push the boundaries of innovation and we will have to adapt.”
The KnowBe4 Security Solutions that are Designed for SaaS Businesses
KnowBe4 is a security awareness training platform that is designed to help organizations, companies, or businesses minimize their risk of falling into any cyber security attacks, especially those that use social engineering strategies, such as phishing attacks, ransomware, and others. So, this platform can be used both for traditional and SaaS businesses to lower their risk of experiencing any data breach caused by these cyberattacks.
For SaaS businesses, protecting their organization from possible cyber security attacks like phishing and others is becoming more important because their business is hosted and managed completely on the cloud. At the time of data breach, the damages can be more detrimental than the businesses that are hosted on the premise. So, for SaaS businesses, KnowBe4 is recommended as their security awareness training solutions to prevent any threats from approaching their organization. Concluding our interview, Stu explained to us about how SaaS businesses can take advantage of KnowBe4,
“At KnowBe4, we don’t refer to our offerings as solutions because we don’t believe that any one product can be considered a silver bullet when it comes to cybersecurity. Rather, it takes many layers of security. We simply help security professionals manage the ongoing problem of social engineering.
While some cybersecurity threats are specific to SaaS organizations, others, such as social engineering, are not. Both traditional and SaaS organizations can take advantage of our new-school security awareness training and simulated phishing to significantly reduce their risk of falling for cybercrime activities or experiencing a data breach. New-school security awareness training is a key part of an effective cyber risk resilience and prevention strategy.
KnowBe4 also has a plethora of free tools (and introduces new free tools all the time) for any IT or cybersecurity professional to use to help better protect their organization, including an Email Exposure Check, Phish Alert Button, Weak Password Test, Breached Password Test, Ransomware Simulator, USB Security Test, Mailserver Security Assessment and Automated Security Awareness Program.”