Healthcare and pharma firms hit hardest by dangerous emails

~ New managed service lets healthcare and pharmaceutical companies use mock email phishing attacks to cut harmful clicks ~

London-based managed IT services provider OryxAlign has announced the launch of its new managed cybersecurity awareness training service in partnership with training specialist KnowBe4. The service will allow healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses to periodically test their employees’ awareness and preparedness against dangerous email attacks, known as ‘phishing’. Based on their responses, staff will receive a customised training programme and access to a library of thousands of resources, including webinars, quizzes and games to develop their cybersecurity awareness.

Phishing is a type of cyberattack where an attacker sends a fraudulent email or message that often encourages them to visit a criminal website that appears to be legitimate. It’s designed to trick the recipient into sharing sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial information.

Research by training specialist KnowBe4 shows that the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors are some of the worst affected by phishing attacks. 33 per cent of employees in small firms (1-249 employees) clicked on phishing emails, 37 per cent of employees in medium-sized firms (250-999 employees) clicked on the emails and 45 per cent of employees in large firms (1000+ employees) clicked on phishing emails.

The phishing security test from OryxAlign provides businesses with the ability to simulate a phishing attack by sending randomised mock phishing emails to their employees every quarter. The emails are designed to look like real phishing emails that employees may receive. The tool allows organisations to track who clicked on the links in the email or provided sensitive information in response to the email.

Based on their responses, users are given a cybersecurity awareness score, which is used to provide them with an ongoing programme of cybersecurity training, via an online library of webinars, quizzes, games and even a Netflix-style TV series.

“Employees across a business can vary significantly in their cybersecurity skills, so there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all training programme to improve awareness and preparedness,” explained Martin Wegrostek, cyber security portfolio manager at OryxAlign. “This is why we’ve partnered with KnowBe4 to offer a simulated phishing attack and training service.

“By using this tool, healthcare and pharmaceutical firms can assess their employees’ ability to identify and avoid phishing attacks. The results of the test can help businesses identify areas of weakness in their security, from practitioners to executives.”

The training is delivered virtually at the user’s own pace and organisations can integrate their corporate IT policies into the platform. As well as scoring individual users, the results of the simulated attacks can be used to benchmark the overall score for the company against other healthcare and pharmaceutical companies.

The cybersecurity awareness training is offered as a managed service, but interested users can carry out a free phishing test for up to 100 employees by filling out the online form on the OryxAlign website at oryxalign.com/phishing.