On paper, it sounds so easy: you put together for the actual factor by operating simulations. In any case, the identical precept applies to numerous disciplines: sports activities, the navy, transport, disaster preparedness, and plenty of extra. And, after all, to varied points of cybersecurity, together with pink teaming, purple teaming, Seize-The-Flag (CTF) contests, and tabletop workouts. Is phishing any totally different?
The reply: it’s not, not less than in principle. All of it comes all the way down to execution, and we’ve seen a number of errors organizations make when implementing phishing coaching. 4 of the most typical, in our expertise, are:
- Making phishing simulations an train in tick-box compliance, with out placing a lot thought into the design of campaigns, the standard of the lures, or the cadence of simulations – which signifies that coaching campaigns don’t bear a lot resemblance to real assaults, and customers can grow to be fatigued
- Skewing outcomes by making phishing simulations ‘unfair’ – crossing moral boundaries and inflicting customers stress and uncertainty with scare techniques designed to deceive them. For instance: sending emails through a legit company area; utilizing pretexts regarding monetary hardship and job safety; and basing phishing emails on private info scraped from social media. Whereas we acknowledge that menace actors might use some or all of those strategies in the actual world, the actual fact is that organizations doing this to their very own workers threat backlashes, lack of belief, and erosion of firm tradition that outweighs any potential advantages.
- Punishing customers who ‘fail’ phishing assessments, whether or not that’s by implementing extra-dull necessary coaching, ‘naming and shaming,’ or making use of disciplinary measures. This may make customers resentful, and fewer more likely to interact with phishing coaching and different safety efforts in future
- Specializing in failure somewhat than success – extra on this later, because it’s essential to how we run phishing simulations internally at Sophos
Phriend or phoe?
These points, and some others, have come up again and again in debates over the effectiveness of phishing coaching.
Supporters of phishing coaching laud its supposed effectiveness, particularly when mixed with consciousness coaching, at boosting studying retention charges and return on funding. Some argue that simulated phishing helps practice customers’ instincts, forcing them to query whether or not emails could also be malicious; others level to threat discount, cost-effectiveness (versus the price of an precise breach), and the event of a ‘security-first’ tradition.
Alternatively, along with the pitfalls we talked about earlier, detractors argue that phishing simulations might not cut back threat in any respect, or solely by a miniscule quantity.
Two latest research – one in 2021, the opposite in 2025 – involving hundreds of members recommend that phishing simulations have solely a really small impact on the chance of falling for a phishing lure. The 2025 examine additionally concludes that annual consciousness coaching makes no important distinction to susceptibility, and that workers who fail phishing simulations have a tendency to not interact with coaching supplies afterwards. And each research additionally point out that, counter-intuitively, coaching might truly make customers extra inclined to phishing makes an attempt – probably as a result of fatigue or overconfidence (i.e., in assuming that their group has invested in cybersecurity, customers might grow to be much less vigilant).
We should always observe that there are some caveats to the 2025 examine; as famous by Ross Lazerowitz of Mirage Safety, it solely focuses on click on charges, makes use of members from a single group in a single business, and doesn’t take coaching design and high quality under consideration.
However, it appears clear that, if incorrectly designed and executed, phishing simulations might at finest haven’t any impact in any respect, through which case they’re a waste of time, effort, and cash. Worst-case: they could even be counter-productive, nonetheless well-intentioned.
So what’s the answer? Are phishing simulations, like many different issues in cybersecurity, a Onerous Drawback that’s simply too troublesome to resolve?
It’s apparent that we will’t ignore the issue, as a result of phishing is normally essentially the most prevalent entry level for cyber assaults: attackers know it really works, it’s low cost and straightforward (and can solely grow to be cheaper and simpler with generative AI), and it’s typically the best means for them to achieve a foothold. Would your group be higher off investing in extra or higher electronic mail controls, then, or extra e-learning packages and consciousness coaching? Is phake phishing phutile?
Our phishing philosophy
At Sophos, we don’t assume so. We’ve been operating inside phishing simulations ourselves since 2019, primarily based on eventualities we assessment yearly and taking into consideration shifts and developments that we’ve noticed within the menace panorama. We’re below no phantasm that these simulations will by themselves get rid of the chance of a profitable assault (see right here for an illustration).
However we nonetheless assume phishing workouts are worthwhile, and right here’s why: we don’t measure by failure. We measure by success.
Counting clicks misses methods
Click on charges (the proportion of recipients that clicked a faux phishing hyperlink) aren’t significantly informative or useful, as a result of we all know, from many, many incidents and a long time of expertise that it solely takes one person to click on a hyperlink, enter some credentials or run a script, and let an attacker in.
Sure, organizations nonetheless want to repeatedly bolster their resilience to human error, however measuring by failure frames customers as an issue, not an asset. It additionally gives a false sense of safety. You’re not possible to ever get all the way down to a 0% click on price, and even something approaching that – and also you actually received’t be capable to maintain it over time. So going from a 30% click on price down to twenty%, for instance, and even to 10%, may sound spectacular, and strikes the needle a bit, nevertheless it doesn’t actually imply a lot. Crucially, it additionally doesn’t enable you put together for a real assault.
As a substitute, our key metric at Sophos is what number of customers report phishing emails. We very intentionally make this straightforward for customers to do, with a easy, massive, extremely seen Report button on our electronic mail shopper that robotically forwards the e-mail in query to our safety groups. (A reminder to Sophos E mail customers: this function is on the market to you too. Customers can even use the Outlook add-in to ship suspicious emails to SophosLabs for evaluation.) This avoids placing the onus on customers to ahead emails themselves, or take screenshots, or obtain the message and ship it as an attachment to the safety workforce together with a preamble.
Reporting for responsibility
One of many the reason why we emphasize stories over clicks is that, in a real-world assault, the variety of customers who clicked a hyperlink is essentially irrelevant, not less than early on in an incident. It’s one thing you received’t know till somebody stories the e-mail, or till you notice suspicious exercise elsewhere and examine – by which period, after all, the attacker is already in.
In distinction, stories are a extremely tailor-made supply of actionable menace intelligence. Phishing emails are very not often personalized for and focused at one particular person. Even when they’re distinctive, the infrastructure behind them (C2, internet hosting, and many others) sometimes isn’t.
So when a person stories a suspicious electronic mail, a safety workforce can instantly triage it and observe a longtime, ideally automated, course of that includes detonating attachments, wanting up IOCs, looking for visits to credential-harvesting websites, menace looking throughout the property, blocking malicious domains, and clawing again emails despatched to different customers.
We additionally measure report velocity, as a result of that’s essential too. A phishing assault is a race towards time. If an attacker persuades a person to enter credentials, obtain a file, or execute a script, they’ll rapidly get hold of a foothold within the setting. The sooner a person stories a phishing electronic mail, the extra time a safety workforce has to evict an attacker, and the much less time the attacker has to dig in.
Altering the vibes
In fact we don’t need customers to click on hyperlinks in phishing emails, however we additionally don’t need them to easily delete the e-mail, or transfer it to their junk/spam folder, or ignore it solely – as a result of that places us behind the tempo. We will’t reply to a menace if we don’t find out about it.
Report charges subsequently change the normal dynamic in terms of phishing simulations. Quite than congratulate folks for one thing they didn’t do (i.e., click on the hyperlink, interact with the e-mail) – or, worse, punish them for clicking a hyperlink – we congratulate them for one thing they did do. It’s a case of offering an incentive to take a constructive motion, somewhat than a adverse or impartial one – and of empowering customers to be a vital line of protection, as a substitute of treating them because the “weakest hyperlink.”
So phishing simulations grow to be much less about attempting to catch customers out and trick them into clicking hyperlinks, and extra about coaching them to recollect to hit the Report button. The way in which we like to border it’s this: we’re not attempting to deceive our workers. We’re enjoying a recreation, to assist refresh their reminiscence and reinforce the reporting mindset.
In fact, some customers inevitably do click on hyperlinks in phishing simulations. After they do, they’re not reprimanded at Sophos. As a substitute, they obtain an electronic mail that informs them of what occurred, reminds them of the process for reporting suspicious emails, and factors them in direction of inside academic sources on phishing. Customers who do report a simulated phishing try obtain an equivalent electronic mail, simply with a unique topic line, to take care of positivity and reinforce immediate and proactive reporting.
Phoolproof phake phishing
We’ve put collectively some ideas for organizations to contemplate when planning phishing simulations:
- Discover the correct cadence. Weekly is an excessive amount of, yearly not sufficient. You will have to experiment with totally different intervals to search out the candy spot between person fatigue and lack of retention. Soliciting suggestions from customers and your safety groups, and evaluating metrics throughout simulation campaigns, will assist
- Pretexts ought to be life like, however not unreasonable. Everyone knows that, in the actual world, menace actors typically lack any type of moral restraint and assume nothing of utilizing merciless and manipulative lures. However we aren’t menace actors. Pretexts ought to incorporate frequent social engineering techniques (appeals to urgency, incentives, and many others) with out the chance of alienating workers and dropping their belief. Basing lures on hardships or job safety, for instance, may cause customers to disengage with firm tradition and safety initiatives – a nasty end result, when customers are such an essential asset
- The aim is to strengthen constructive behaviors, to not catch folks out. Crafting a marketing campaign that deceives a report variety of customers isn’t a win. The goals are to empower customers to be a essential line of protection, and to remind them what to do after they spot one thing suspicious. Properly-designed phishing consciousness coaching, together with simulations, can assist customers know what to look out for
- Prioritize stories (and reporting velocity) over clicks. Measure by, and incentivize, success somewhat than failure. As per the above, the purpose is to get customers to react by reporting – as a result of in a real assault, it gives actionable menace intelligence, and the most effective likelihood of intercepting a menace actor early. Counting clicks (and punishing customers who click on) will be counter-productive, even when well-intentioned, as a result of it frames customers as some extent of weak spot, can demotivate them, and gives little helpful info
- Look past the clicking. In fact, you may nonetheless report clicks anyway – however keep in mind to additionally report what occurs subsequent, as a result of there’s extra nuance to the problem. As Ross Lazerowitz says, different behaviors are equally essential. Did somebody click on, after which report after realizing one thing was off? Maybe they didn’t click on, however later visited the web site in a browser out of curiosity? If the hyperlink within the electronic mail led to a simulated credential-harvesting website, did they enter any credentials? (Anecdotally, some pentesters have reported that some customers will intentionally enter false credentials, generally within the type of insulting messages aimed on the ‘menace actor.’ Strictly talking, these may very well be counted as ‘failures,’ though these customers clearly acknowledged the phishing try – however solely a slight behavioral nudge was wanted, to get them to report the e-mail in the correct means.)
- Doing nothing helps nobody. You may assume that customers not participating with a phishing electronic mail is an effective outcome, as a result of it means they didn’t click on. However that received’t assist in the occasion of an actual assault, since you received’t know concerning the menace till somebody does click on, and also you subsequently get a sign of suspicious exercise some other place in your property. At that time, you’re enjoying catch-up whereas the menace actor has received a foothold; the chance to be a step forward has already gone
- Complement simulations with novel types of studying. At Sophos, we attempt to be clear about discussing phishing assaults concentrating on us. A latest article and public root trigger evaluation (RCA) lined one such case – however earlier than we reported it publicly, we held an inside webinar, open to the entire firm, through which our safety workforce mentioned the incident, why it occurred, and what we did in response. We noticed in depth, constructive engagement with this webinar, and lots of curiosity from customers in studying how the assault labored and the way we stopped it – making it an excellent complement to our phishing simulations and common consciousness coaching. It additionally helps to take away a few of the stigma round phishing. No one needs to fall for a phishing electronic mail, simulated or not – however accepting that folks do, and studying from the implications with out attaching blame, is a helpful train
- Not only for finish customers. Phishing simulations will be helpful in themselves, however additionally they present safety groups with a chance to hone their response procedures. From the primary profitable report, you’ll be able to stroll by what you’d do if the phishing electronic mail was actual: detonate attachments, discover and block infrastructure, categorize and block IOCs, claw again emails from different customers’ inboxes, and so forth. It will also be likelihood to check automation of those steps
- Embody everybody (inside purpose). Phishing simulations ought to ideally contain all groups, departments, and seniority ranges, or a randomized pattern of customers throughout a corporation. This helps present a consultant image
- Construct techniques tolerant to human failure. Extra a method than a aim, nevertheless it’s essential to recognise that any safety management that’s reliant on human behaviour is inherently weak. In any fashionable fast-paced setting we inevitably spend lots of time in our “System 1” mode of considering. Management design ought to settle for that, not battle it. We’ve come a good distance right here – 0-day 0-click drive-by-downloads are exceptionally uncommon. Phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) exists and, arguably, is on the cusp of mass-adoption. Time spent managing phishing assessments is time that might probably be spent tightening up extra sturdy and dependable technical controls.
Conclusion
Phishing isn’t going away. In reality, generative AI might make it much more of a menace, as a result of attackers can use it to beat the normal telltale indicators: spelling errors, grammatical errors, and shoddy formatting. So it’s more and more essential that we use each software at our disposal to defend towards it.
In fact, AI is on the market for defenders too, however we additionally acknowledge that people are one in all our strongest property in terms of protection. Individuals choose up on cues and context, each consciously and unconsciously, and might typically really feel when one thing isn’t fairly proper about an electronic mail.
If designed, executed, used, and measured in the correct means, common phishing simulations can assist to develop these abilities even additional, offer you a ready-made intelligence pipeline within the occasion of an assault, and improve your safety tradition – all of which will increase the probabilities of you disrupting the following actual try.
