Cofense PhisMe for cyber security services organisation

Background. As a cyber security specialist and managed security solutions provider (MSSP), eSecure helps businesses of all sizes protect against cyberattacks. The company, which has offices in Australia and the UK, partners with Cofense to deliver phishing defense solutions. According to eSecure CEO CIinton Smith, the company decided on Cofense because, “The Cofense approach is a very practical and real way of educating a broad audience about cybersecurity threats. It enables us to demonstrate that we’re invested in understanding and strengthening our customers’ security by offering the very best-of-breed technology.” Solutions and Results. Cofense PhishMeTM, which simulates attacks to educate users, has been “stellar” in raising phishing awareness. “To succeed, we have to help our customers change their culture,” said Smith. “While most organizations are aware of phishing, levels of awareness vary amongst their own people. The security teams are naturally clued in, but individual users often expect that their employers are going to protect their mailboxes.” Smith noted that customers are seeing more phishing attacks on cloud services. “As organizations move their business operations to the cloud, those cloud-based applications like O365 and SharePoint become a natural target for exploitation,” he said. “Cofense helps our customers identify and respond to these attacks, and to other types of attacks, much faster. That’s a great benefit, since some of the attacks you see in the news have been quite devastating.” “Budget pressures point to an outsourced solution. The economies of scale simply make sense. Plus, small and medium-sized businesses realize it’s smart to distribute their cybersecurity, instead of relying on one staffer to manage everything. When that person goes on annual leave, the gap becomes too risky.” He added that customers are increasingly comfortable with a hybrid approach. “Often, customers manage certain security functions themselves and outsource other functions, for example, phishing defense,” he said. In Summary. The reaction to Cofense solutions: “Customers love them,” said Smith. “Again, the Cofense approach to phishing defense is quite practical and achieves real results. Let’s put it this way: customers know it’s better to have a good guy doing a security test, if you will, than a bad guy. “Having had long heart-to-heart discussions with CEOs about security incidents, I think it’s usually not a case of a single event exposing their vulnerability. It’s normally a series of events that show a lack of understanding about the threat and relative investment required for effective phishing defense. Once they understand how large the problem is, they realize they can’t afford to build an adequate solution. “That’s where eSecure and Cofense come in. We make it possible for businesses of every size to see and stop phishing.”