Identify
A technical phishing test can improve the entire chain of your technical email defence
One of the most used cyber attacks against enterprises is malicious emails sent to corporate email addresses, commonly known as phishing attacks. Innocent looking attachments or links clicked by unsuspecting users often lead to security incidents e.g., destructive ransomware attacks or stealthy information theft. A technical phishing test in your organization can increase your resilience to email attacks.
What is a technical phishing test?
A technical phishing test is a simulated email attack similar to those used by cybercriminals to gain confidential information in order to perform ransomware attacks or similar.
The purpose of the test is to find any weak points in your current email defences - from the email security gateway to the users' desktops.
A phishing test can be used to show how susceptible your organization's employees are to a phishing attack. The goal is to teach your employees the ability to recognize and respond to different types of phishing.
A phishing attack can have major consequences
According to the Centre for Cybersecurity, the cyber threat from phishing emails is extremely high. The amount of phishing attempts is estimated to being on such a large scale that most organizations are subjected to phishing attacks daily.
Phishing tests are an effective way to raise and improve awareness of cyber attacks and suspicious emails. It also shows your awareness level - and therefore where more training and awareness is needed. After one or more simulated phishing attacks, the risk of your employees recognizing a phishing email is significantly increased.
A cyber attack such as a phishing email can result in financial loss, data loss and reputational damage.
3 reasons to get a technical phishing test done
A technical phishing test can help identify vulnerabilities and strengthen your defences. Here are three reasons why you should consider a technical phishing test:
#1
Increase resistance
Increase your resilience to email-based attacks.
#2
Get recommendations
Get recommendations for your entire chain of technical email defence.
#3
Prevent attackers
Prevents attackers from compromising your network.
How your phishing test works
A phishing test takes place in a secure and controlled environment. We use our extensive experience to create different payloads across different executable file types and send them through email systems to the desktop.
We observe if they are blocked or handled in a way that renders the attack useless or if they are allowed to pass through and potentially be executed by the user. We test both payloads delivered as attachments and delivered via links. This is supplemented with specific test cases highlighting missing defence opportunities that we often encounter during engagements.
Based on these inputs, we analyse the level of sophistication required to bypass all defences and gain execution or access to credentials. Using this knowledge, we create examples of potentially successful attacks to show the value of finetuning the defence.
The analysis is delivered in the form of a written report containing the following:
- A non-technical section with an executive summary for management and decision makers
- A technical section including detailed observations and tangible recommendations to improve the security level and hardening of your email defence.
The test requires minimal involvement of your technical staff.