Phishing attacks are becoming more and more common as the years go on.  You see phishing emails disguised as many things, from phony Microsoft 365 login pages to fake fantasy football sign ups. Nowadays we know two things when it comes to Phishing, your organization is not immune to attacks and employee training has never been more important.

(Check out our article on "NCUA Alerts Credit Unions on Heightened Risk of Phishing")

This is where a phishing security awareness software can come in and help your organization exponentially. How do you know which software solutions would be the best fit for your organization? What features should you look for when it comes to a phishing security awareness software?

In this article, we will look at the top features to consider when evaluating a phishing security awareness software.

Phishing Email Templates

An important part of your phishing security awareness software is going to be sending "simulated" or "test" phishing emails to your employees. You want these phishing emails to be convincing enough to make your employees think about clicking, but also "phishy" enough to test their security awareness. This is where templates become super valuable. Pre-made phishing templates take a lot of work out of your hands by giving you quality phishing emails with only a couple of clicks. Phishing templates will also give you a wide variety of email subjects, so that you can appeal to all your employees. This will especially appeal to us non-artists, or those of us who simply do not have the time to create fancy phishing templates.

When looking for a phishing software you want to make sure there are plenty of templates with a wide range of variety.

Scheduling the Emails

Your phishing campaigns need to be scheduled. More importantly they need to be sent at random times. If everyone in your organization got an interesting or phishy email at the same time, then it would be pretty easy to tell it is a phishing test. When looking for a phishing security awareness software be sure you can schedule the days and hours emails will go out, but also double check that the emails will send randomly over those set times.

Educational Resources

Now is the time where you probably say to me, "Ok cool, I should be able to send out fake phish emails to test my employees, but how can a phishing software help me educate my employees?" If you were to say that you would be correct!

A very important part of a phishing awareness software is the education component. The resources could be anything from posters to training courses. Phishing education posters play a role in creating and cultivating a great information security culture at your organization. Plus, if they are good posters, who doesn't like some cool decorations around the office?

Training courses are not only a great refresher on how to fight off phishing attacks, but also a great way to teach an employee phishing methods and tactics. This is especially helpful to employees who happen to fail one of your simulated phishing attacks. In a phishing security awareness software, you would want to look for a feature that will automatically enroll your employees in a training course after they failed a simulated phishing test.

Peer Analysis

Peer analysis is a fun but useful tool to consider finding in a phishing security awareness software. Comparing your phishing campaign results to other organizations implementing the same phishing tests can tell you a lot about your organization's phishing security awareness. Are less of your employees failing testing this year compared to last year? How does your organization compare for a particular phishing template compared to other companies using the same phishing campaign? Peer analysis is a very useful tool to consider when looking at which phishing security awareness software you want to purchase.

Download our Phishing Security Awareness Software Review Excel Tool for a more exhaustive list of features you may want to consider when evaluating potential phishing awareness solutions.

Consider Tandem Phishing

If you're looking for a software to help you with your phishing tests, I recommend you check out Tandem Phishing. Tandem allows you to send simulated phishing emails to your employees, enroll employees in supplemental training courses, and generate reports to see progress over time. To learn more about Tandem Phishing, check out Tandem.App/Phishing-Security-Awareness-Software.