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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Short Fuse for Phishing Awareness Training

October 6, 2020

Cybercriminals are working overtime developing new attacks to gain access to your data and computing resources. Being aware of the various attack methods can be a strong deterrent to being compromised. CPO Magazine posted information concerning the effectiveness of phishing awareness training. The results indicate that you should be conducting phishing awareness training at least every six months to maintain maximum efficiency. Apparently, we have very short term memories and need to have reinforcement on a periodic basis.

The study also looked at the effectiveness of four different types of periodic reminders. It assessed "a short text, a longer message, a video and interactive examples." The results showed that video and interactive examples are the most effective. What we learned is that we should receive phishing awareness training every four months, after which there is a substantial decline of user recognition. At six months many employees will have almost entirely lost what they have learned. Sobering results indeed.

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