NC Nov-Dec 2023

PRODUCT REVIEW
Hornetsecurity
Security
Awareness Service
PRODUCT REVIEW
PRODUCT
REVIEWPRODUCT RE
Cybercriminals never sit still and are
always looking for new ways to outwit
businesses and breach their security
controls. Email spear phishing is still one of the
most successful and prevalent forms of attack,
so businesses must be more robust in their
defences and stop seeing staff as just another
security risk.
Security Awareness Service (SAS) from
Hornetsecurity is an innovative solution that
turns staff from a potential liability into an extra
defence layer. Using Hornetsecurity's patented
Spear Phishing Engine (SPE), it tests and e-
trains them in attack recognition and
avoidance techniques.
SAS goes further than many competing
solutions as, instead of merely providing
templates to help build phishing scenarios, the
SPE does it all for you by automatically creating
realistic simulated phishing emails, based on
the most current types of attacks.
Even better, it employs its Awareness Engine
and patented Employee Security Index (ESI®)
to regularly evaluate each user's behaviour
and increase or decrease the level of training
intensity to help them achieve a strong
security mindset.
Deployment is swift, as you whitelist the
spoofed mail domains used by SAS, and onboard
users and groups from Active Directory
(AD), Azure AD, LDAP or via CSV upload.
Ongoing management is equally simple, as
SAS uses the same web portal as all other
Hornetsecurity products to provide a single
pane of glass. From the SAS configuration
page, you view all evaluated users and groups,
enable phishing simulations and set up e-
training. For phishing simulations, you can hand
the whole process to the Spear Phishing Engine,
which automatically generates and sends
simulated phishing emails, based on each user's
measured security level.
Plenty of customisation is available,
as you can have personal evaluations sent to
each user, so that they can view them in their
own Security Hub portal and choose to view the
types of phishing emails, with options for
emails containing attachments, macros,
credential phishing and domain spoofing. A
Report Phishing for Outlook plug-in is also
available, so users can report suspicious emails.
The e-training module is activated for all users
and you can specify the number of training
sessions it should carry out each year. The
Awareness Engine is very smart, as its Single
User Booster feature ensures weak users in a
group receive more training, while the
Productivity Booster reduces training for those
with high security scores.
At this point, you can leave SAS to get on with
its job in the background and as users receive
their test phishing emails, it watches what they
do with them. If they recognise and report it,
they'll improve their security score; but, if they
click on a link or open an attachment, the e-
training module kicks in, right at the 'most
teachable moment'. Users that were tricked are
redirected to an advisory web page, which
provides interactive e-training that teaches them
all the things they need to look out for. It shows
how to validate the sender's address, hover the
cursor over a link to see its real destination and
question the message content - all simple, but
important, precautions.
The SAS dashboard shows your current and
projected ESI® scores and enables selfgovernance
with knowledge, as it compares
your company's rating with the industry average.
A statistics page provides charts of all actions
carried out on test emails, their success rates
and which psychological tricks are proving
to be the most effective.
Hornetsecurity's Security Awareness Services is
a staunch ally in the fight against phishing. It
can turn staff into a valuable security asset, and
its power-ful automated phishing simulation,
response and e-training capabilities make it
remarkably easy to deploy and to use. NC
Product: Security Awareness Service
Supplier: Hornetsecurity
Web site: www.hornetsecurity.com
Tel: +44 (0) 203 0869 833
Sales: sales@hornetsecurity.com
Contact Hornetsecurity for pricing.
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