KnowBe4 for Irish Cattle Breeding Federation

Business and Technical Challenges. With all growing organisations, the importance of security awareness is something that is built up over time. Arriving at the organisation nearly five years ago, Jonathan Flack, senior systems administrator, noticed that the culture of security awareness at ICBF and Sheep Ireland was not progressing as it should. On the contrary, it was almost non-existent. “There was no security awareness within the company when I started,” Jonathan said. Passwords weren’t being changed regularly, and “everybody knew everybody else’s password.” He also noticed the click-through rate on phishing links was particularly high, as people would frequently log into their colleagues’ email and open a phishing link out of curiosity. However, despite their best efforts, they never won that free iPad that was promised. The Resolution. At the beginning of 2018, frustrated by employee apathy and limited by the constraints of a tedious training package, Jonathan was determined to find a training option that fit ICBF and Sheep Ireland’s needs without exceeding the current budget laid out by the organisation. Resolute to reduce the time spent chasing up workers across ten different departments, Jonathan aimed to provide security awareness to the entire organisation without the added hassle. For Jonathan, research for a new security training service began with the Gartner Magic Quadrant and KnowBe4 immediately stood out at the forefront of security awareness providers in both leadership and vision. There were several other contenders, but he recalled that it was “a hassle” trying to get into contact with a local reseller, as most of them had offices overseas, making it difficult to conduct business across different time zones. He found that being able to do business with a company on the same schedule was a luxury often taken for granted, particularly in the realm of IT security. Result and Benefits. The results for ICBF and Sheep Ireland were simple, while it can be difficult to provide concrete metrics of success, the organisation noticed a “reduction of overall IT security threats”. The KnowBe4 training at ICBF and Sheep Ireland “has equipped staff with the tools needed to acknowledge IT security threats inside and outside the organisation.” While it can be difficult to provide a definitive metric for successful security awareness, one simple way of proving success is by measuring staff engagement with the training. Since implementing KnowBe4, Jonathan noticed that IT security had become a topic amongst colleagues as their attitude towards cybersecurity evolved. “Staff were having light-bulb moments when they see or hear of security threats. They feel enabled to analyse threats and empowered to make informed decisions when faced with a threat.”