Cloudflare’s cloud email security solution, Area 1, now integrates with KnowBe4, a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform. This integration allows mutual customers to offer real-time coaching to their employees when a phishing campaign is detected by Cloudflare’s email security solution.
Phishing attacks often use email as a vector to deliver the fraudulent message. Cybercriminals use a range of tactics, such as posing as a trustworthy organisation, using urgent or threatening language, or creating a sense of urgency to entice the recipient to click on a link or download an attachment.
Despite the increasing sophistication of these attacks and the solutions to stop them, human error remains the weakest link in this chain of events. This is because humans can be easily manipulated or deceived, especially when they are distracted or rushed. For example, an employee might accidentally click on a link in an email that looks legitimate but is actually a phishing attempt, or they might enter their password into a fake login page without realising it. According to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing was the most common form of social engineering attack, accounting for 36% of all breaches. The report also noted that 85% of all breaches involved a human element, such as human error or social engineering.
Therefore, it is essential to educate and train individuals on how to recognise and avoid phishing attacks. This includes raising awareness of common phishing tactics and training individuals to scrutinise emails carefully before clicking on any links or downloading attachments.
Area1 integrates with KnowBe4
The integration allows for the seamless integration of Cloudflare’s advanced email security capabilities with KnowBe4’s Security Awareness Training platform, KSMAT, and its real-time coaching product, SecurityCoach. This means that organisations using both products can now benefit from an added layer of security that detects and prevents email-based threats in real-time while also training employees to recognise and avoid such threats.
Organisations can offer real-time security coaching to their employees whenever Cloudflare’s email security solution detects four types of events: malicious attachments, malicious links, spoofed emails, and suspicious emails. IT or security professionals can configure their real-time coaching campaigns to immediately deliver relevant training to their users related to a detected event.
By using the integration, organisations can ensure that their employees are not only protected by advanced security technology that detects and blocks malicious emails but are also educated on how to identify and avoid these threats. This has been a commonly demanded feature from Cloudflare’s customers, and the company has made it simple for them to implement it.
“KnowBe4 is proud to partner with Cloudflare to provide a seamless integration with our new SecurityCoach product, which aims to deliver real-time security coaching and advice to help end users enhance their cybersecurity knowledge and strengthen their role in contributing to a strong security culture. KnowBe4 is actively working with Cloudflare to provide an API-based integration to connect our platform with systems that IT/security professionals already utilise, making rolling out new products to their teams an easy and unified process.”
– Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4
