Why Do Phishing Campaigns Fail?
The secret to a successful phishing campaign is engagement. Your team should know why they are going through this training. They should know how to identify the threats. Most importantly, your team needs to know that Cybersecurity is everyone’s job.
We have all gone through the moment when we click on a link and realize that the link was a phishing link. Sometimes you are presented with a gotcha page from your IT Department. Sometimes you are assigned mandatory training. Sometimes, it is a real phishing attack.
Why do we click on those potentially bad links?
Lack of Awareness: If employees aren’t adequately trained or informed about phishing attacks, they may not recognize the signs of a simulated phishing email, leading to higher success rates for the test.
Inadequate Training: If the training provided prior to testing isn’t effective or engaging, employees may not retain the information necessary to identify phishing attempts.
Testing Frequency: Infrequent testing may not reinforce lessons learned, causing employees to forget the training and become complacent over time.
Poorly Designed Tests: If the phishing tests are too easy or unrealistic, employees may not take them seriously. Conversely, overly complicated tests may confuse employees, making it difficult for them to identify the phishing attempt.
Fear of Punishment: If employees fear repercussions for failing a phishing test, they may be less likely to report suspicious emails in the future. This can create a culture of silence rather than openness about cybersecurity threats.
Insufficient Communication: If the organization fails to communicate the purpose of phishing tests clearly, employees may not understand their importance and be less motivated to pay attention.
Overlooking Context: Tests that don’t consider the context of the workplace or common communication practices within the organization may not resonate with employees. For example, emails that appear too different from typical internal communications may raise suspicion.
Technological Barriers: Sometimes, technical issues, such as spam filters or email security settings, may prevent phishing test emails from reaching employees or cause them to be flagged as junk, skewing the results.
Lack of Follow-up: If there is no follow-up after a phishing test, including discussions about what went wrong and how to improve, employees may not learn from their mistakes.
Resistance to Change: Some employees may be resistant to changing their habits or may not take cybersecurity seriously, regardless of training and testing efforts.
