Building resilience from a security perspective

Plymouth Citizens Advice service helps the local community resolve problems, spanning from debt and employment, to consumer and housing and everything in-between.

The Challenge

Raising Security Awareness Across the Whole Team

Plymouth Citizens Advice comprises a mix of full and part-time staff and volunteers. While the majority work from the office, some staff work remotely and felt more vulnerable to phishing attempts than when they worked in the office.

With an ever-evolving threat landscape, Plymouth Citizens Advice knew they needed to raise security awareness and provide training that educated both staff and volunteers to recognise phishing attempts and follow the correct procedures to report them to the IT help desk so they could be contained.

The Solution

Delivering Security Awareness Training as a Managed Service

Following a period of consultation to identify the security awareness and training needs of the business, Xerox Business Solutions implemented the KnowBe4 Security Awareness and Training as a managed service. Offering the training as a managed service enables a more tailored approach to training.

The security awareness training replicates phishing attempts and records the user responses. Delivering KnowBe4 as a managed service enables Xerox Business Solutions to monitor those responses and tailor the training to the exact requirements of the team, rather than a more generic approach to security training.

The Result

Achieved a 55% reduction in their Phish Prone Percentage

At the beginning of the rollout, emails containing phishing attempts were sent to all participants to gauge their responses and help determine the baseline of security awareness.

This identified a baseline Phish Prone Percentage (PPP) of 18.3%. Following monthly campaigns since implementation the PPP result of their last campaign was 7.5% and their current average is 8.2%.

Since implementing the KnowBe4 Security Awareness and Training, the overall ability to recognise phishing attempts and follow the appropriate procedures to report suspicious emails has significantly improved and contributes to helping Plymouth Citizen Advice strengthen its security posture.