How to Use Phishing Campaign Metrics

Mitigating your phishing risk is critical for protecting your company and clients, and your training data is essential to this process.

This information can dramatically improve your return on investment by revealing whether you need to take a different approach to training. Knowing which data to focus on and how to interpret it is vital for gaining the insight you need to manage training that ensures results.

Key Metrics for Evaluating Phishing Threats

You must track your progress to ensure your training campaign is effective. Collecting data on campaign metrics is essential for accurately gauging how well your employees retain what they learn and how quickly your organization can eliminate genuine threats. 

Some key performance indicators include the following.

• Incident volume: Tracking how many phishing attempts target your company in a given period can reveal patterns in attack frequency.
• Response time: This KPI represents the interval that passes from the moment someone identifies a threat to when they act on it. The faster employees can detect and respond to phishing threats, the less damage the attack can inflict. 
• Click-through rate: A downward trend in the number of fraudulent links employees click on in real and simulated phishing scenarios indicates employees are putting their training into practice.
• Repeat CTR: This metric can reveal which team members are not progressing in the training program, which could present a risk to your security.
• Report rate: The number of fraudulent emails that get correctly reported in a given period compared to the incident volume demonstrates your team's ability to mitigate threats.
• False positives: The percentage of legitimate emails that employees mistakenly report as phishing attempts reveals the trust they place in your organization's security systems.
• Individual progress: Some training platforms allow you to track individual employee statistics, which can help you identify team members who may need additional assistance in understanding the training content.

You should be able to collect the relevant data for all these KPIs directly through the training platform you use for convenient storage and analysis.

It can also help to source feedback directly from your users. Since they deal directly with your training software, they can provide valuable insight into what's working and why.

For example, your users might appreciate a feature like Phin Security's Learning Moments, which provides actionable tips every time a user clicks on a phishing link to help them avoid repeating the same mistake.

Interpreting Data for Improved Security Measures

While your staff is full of IT subject matter experts, you may lack data scientists who know how to analyze and interpret your data. 

Fortunately, technology can solve this problem for you. Choosing a cybersecurity training solution with built-in data analytics can save you valuable time and money by automating analysis and reporting indefinitely or for a specific period.

Metric Interpretation and Data-Driven Decision-Making

Data-driven decision-making is a business concept that involves collecting, aggregating and analyzing vast amounts of company data to guide your business and IT decisions. Effective metric interpretation is essential in DDDM because it provides the knowledge your organization needs to make decisions that benefit your business and clients.

Putting data into practice can also help you ensure your security training program aligns with your company's overall mission — delivering excellent, compliant IT services to your clients. 

User Behavior Analysis and Security Awareness Training

Human behavior is a critical component of social engineering attacks — and proactivity is key for preventing your people from accidentally introducing threats into your MSP network. Analyzing user behaviors with metrics like individual progress, CTR and repeat CTR can help you:

• Identify which users pose the most risk to your company
• Understand your overall risk of falling victim to phishing attacks
• Create potential strategies to change their behavior

Advancing Cybersecurity With Phishing Campaigns

Simulated phishing campaigns are one of the most effective training solutions for combating social engineering threats because they give your employees opportunities to test their knowledge in realistic situations. When you have specific data indicating your progress, you can understand how well your investment is working to advance your company's overall security.

Benchmarking Success and Improvement Strategies

It's significantly easier to see how far you've come when you have a clear view of where you started. That's why you need to set benchmarks at the start of any phishing simulation campaign. 

Before launching a new simulation, capture as many KPIs as you have data for. Then, compare your benchmarks to the stats you collect at the end of your campaign to see how much you've improved. This comparison will also reveal your ideal opportunities to do better.

Enhancing Prevention With Phishing Test Programs and Metrics

Phishing simulations are excellent for testing your employees' ability to respond to real social engineering threats before they happen.

Here's how it works.

1. Set up: You set your simulation campaign's duration and scope, logging any relevant benchmarks and goals for future reference.
2. Simulation launch: Your phishing simulation platform sends out false messages designed to closely mimic real social engineering emails. 
3. Employee response: Your employees must respond correctly to these emails to progress through the program. They may also need to complete a series of training exercises, such as video lessons and quizzes.
4. Analytics and reporting: After completing the campaign, you'll analyze the results of your simulation and compare them to your benchmarks to determine how well your company did.
5. Postmortem review: Your cybersecurity team will review your findings and determine strategies for improving your outcomes in the next simulation. 

Choosing a comprehensive phishing test solution with integrated analytics and reporting tools will deliver valuable insights quickly, fueling efficient DDDM. 

Moving Forward With Data-Informed Cybersecurity

A proactive, people-focused approach is essential for making real progress in protecting your organization from phishing and other security threats. The behavioral data you collect during training campaigns can help you determine the best steps to ensure your employees understand and apply what they learn.

Embracing a Culture of Continuous Improvement and Learning

Phishing emails today are becoming increasingly sophisticated and occurring more frequently, which is why it's so vital to prioritize continuous improvement in security training.

Data analytics tools and automated reporting capabilities help your company gain the insights you need to identify where your focus should be without requiring complex calculations by data scientists. With Phin Security's platform, you can easily view where your team makes progress and where you need improvement with a few clicks, saving you valuable time and money.

Easily Monitor Phishing Campaigns With Powerful Analytics From Phin Security

Are you looking for a phishing simulator platform that provides real-time insight into your team's progress? Phin Security is the partner you need.

Automated reporting capabilities allow you to monitor weekly or monthly metrics without added complexity, and custom filters let you home in on specific data points for advanced insights. Plus, Phin's intuitive analytics dashboard makes it easy to access and export real-time reports on demand for the most current available data.

Connect with us today to learn more about how our phishing campaigns can help your organization reduce your risk.