Guide to Phishing Assessment
Phishing assessment is the authorised testing process that involves testing end-users’ susceptibility to conduct attacker requested actions. Qualified cybersecurity experts carry out a simulated phishing campaign sent to all system users in a select control group or an organisation.
What is a Phishing Attack?
A phishing attack is the large-scale dissemination of electronic communications such as emails designed by hackers to trick people into revealing their private details such as credit card information and account passwords[1]. It is among the top threats to companies and organisations of all industries and sizes.
These security breaches often result in degraded utilisation of hardware, loss of network functionality, significant damage to an organisation’s reputation, and more. Phishing emails lead to threats entering systems and networks, thus providing hackers with the power to manipulate the system and continue their attack.
Why do Hackers use phishing?
Since the weakest link in any security chain is people, hackers use these unsuspecting people to compromise a system or network. Phishing allows hackers to target many people at once and steal their valuable information.
Due to the many phishing tools available on the internet these days, hackers who are not highly skilled in hacking can conduct successful attacks on networks and systems.[2]
What Does a Phishing Assessment Include?
A phishing assessment has three different essential components:
Test
Here, qualified cybersecurity experts test a company’s or organisation’s employees by conducting an authorised simulated phishing attack. It helps improve the employees’ awareness of ongoing hackers’ threats by creating a security culture in your company or organisation.
Train
It is the next step after testing an organisation’s or company’s employees. In this stage, cybersecurity experts train the employees on areas that they need to improve on to minimise the risk of hackers compromising the system or network.
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