Empower People. Fortify IT.

Scale To The One

In the Information Technology world, the term “Phishing” is well known, and for good reason.  Phishing attacks have duped unsuspecting users into divulging credentials, credit card numbers, and other personal or corporate information. This often makes headlines when the attack delivers ransomware that cripples production and costs millions of dollars.  It’s no wonder that phishing is the number 1 threat to businesses today.  In 2020, during the height of Covid-19, phishing incidents rose 220%.  In Q1 of 2021, phishing attacks rose another 41% as the number of attack vectors and the complexity of attack methods continued to increase. Despite the plethora of email anti-phishing solutions – as well as security awareness training and simulation providers, 74% of phishing attacks in the US are successful, and the average loss per attack now exceeds $4 million. Clearly, the current solutions can’t successfully address the problem. Yet the market keeps pushing out more of the same solutions, fueled by “Sand Hill Road” investors looking to cash in on yet another cyber security startup.  While the threat has changed, both in volume and complexity, the market has not kept pace, leaving corporate IT and Security administrators with a significant weakness in their security architecture. It’s time for change! There is one common denominator in successful phishing attacks:  The One.

• That ONE phishing email that made it through the expensive gateways and services
• That ONE errant click that executed an attack because IT had no way to see it or stop it
• That ONE individual that was not able to spot a phishing attack due to a lack of training

In our world today there is a need for constant connectivity and communication, created and fueled by advances in technology that allow employees 24×7 access to work, family, friends, news, sports, and whatever holds their interest.  As a result, cyber criminals have shifted from trying to force their way into your corporate network to targeting the human element.  With the volumes of data that IT must aggregate and analyze, by the time they realize an employee has been compromised, the damage is done.  To successfully win the war on phishing, IT and Security administrators must be able to scale, not just to the perimeter, but to the ONE.  What does it mean to Scale to the One?

1. Expand beyond email.

Despite the billions of dollars spent on email gateways and filtering services, 50 million bad emails make it to employees each day.  While email is a well-used phishing attack vector, phishing today is NOT an email problem.  Phishing is a communication problem.  25% of phishing attacks today are delivered via social media, including Facebook and LinkedIn.  Threat actors are now using, at an increasing level, every digital means of communication used in the corporate environment, including corporate messaging applications.  Employees need a tool that identifies malicious or suspicious links and content across all digital communication vehicles, not just email, so that they can make intelligent decisions before they click.

2. Introduce proactive, data-driven policy into the IT toolkit.

Today, even with the best of filtering tools, IT has no visibility into the threats their employees see, whether it’s email, social media, web browsers and search engines, or corporate messaging applications.  By the time IT is notified of a possible phishing attack, the damage is done, and the attribution to determine who, what, when, where and how is limited or non-existent.  IT needs data to make decisions and create policy that bolsters their security posture – data on what malicious or suspicious content their users are seeing, attribution data with context so they can properly analyze and remediate events, and trending data to understand what employees need additional education and assistance.  Armed with real time data, IT can configure policy engines that allow them to block malicious content from being clicked on to prevent phishing attacks from being executed.

3. Shift from awareness to knowledge (intelligence).

Despite corporate attempts to provide security awareness training, 97% of employees today cannot spot a phishing attack.  Only 60% of companies today provide any type of formal security training and only 10% of those companies train more than 3 hours per year.  It is no wonder that the front line of your security architecture, the employee, is woefully unprepared, and is unfortunately your weakest link.  Phishing simulations do not prevent attacks, do not impart real cyber security knowledge, and often negatively impact employee morale and the IT/employee relationship.  IT needs the ability to deliver real-time, reality-based training, based on the attack the employee is experiencing, so that true knowledge is imparted, not just awareness.  IT also needs the ability to develop and deliver customized, ongoing training, delivered monthly, quarterly, and yearly, to keep cyber security top of mind and ensure employees are gaining knowledge, not just awareness. Phishing protection must begin at the employee – The ONE – not at the perimeter.  A new movement is needed, the #scaletotheone movement, to promote change in the market mindset as well as corporate phishing protection toolkits.  Join the #scaletotheone movement and say “No” to the way phishing protection is being approached today:

• No longer will we be at the mercy of a single click
• No longer will we force users to be the weakest link
• No longer will we rely on simulations to inaccurately gauge the knowledge levels of our users
• No longer will we rely on yearly awareness training
• No longer will we equate awareness with knowledge
• No longer will we accept limited or no visibility into the threats users click on
• No longer will we believe that phishing is an EMAIL problem
• No longer will we ignore phishing threats from social media

OK, so how do I #scaletotheone?  Great question! There are many vendors in the market today that are selling a piece of the solution – email filtering, web filtering, awareness training – but there is only one vendor that is delivering a comprehensive phishing protection and knowledge training platform. PhishCloud is taking a lead role to improve how corporations are protecting against phishing attacks.  PhishCloud takes a different approach – a human approach – giving IT the ability to #scaletotheone.

• PhishCloud’s endpoint agent clearly identifies malicious, suspicious, or safe content, as simply as a traffic light – red for malicious, yellow for suspicious, green for safe – so your users can make intelligent decisions before they click.
• PhishClolud protects across all digital communication platforms, not just email: email, web browser, social media and messaging apps.
• PhishCloud’s endpoint agent anonymizes data at the endpoint, providing compliant attribution data so you know who, what, when, where and how, aiding in faster response times.
• PhishCloud gives you real time visibility into malicious content that is being viewed or activated by your users so you can respond in real time and focus on only the most critical events.
• PhishCloud’s policy engine allows you to decide how you interact with users when they experience malicious or suspicious content. You can customize notifications or block malicious links from being clicked, mitigating the threat.
• PhishCloud’s platform delivers customizable, real-time training based on what malicious content is being viewed by your users, creating real knowledge, not just awareness, so they are trained to spot the threats before they sink you. Simulations are no longer necessary.
• PhishCloud’s platform delivers customizable ongoing monthly, quarterly, and yearly security training that not only meets your compliance needs, but ensures your users gain real security knowledge.

PhishCloud, the most comprehensive phishing protection and training platform on the market today, allows IT to #scaletotheone and stop phishing attacks where they happen – at the {desktop/individual}.  provides the most comprehensive phishing protection and reality-based training available in the market today, all in one, easy-to-manage platform.  Learn more at www.phishcloud.com.