KnowBe4 has announced its new simulated vishing capability designed to help organizations close what has become the fastest-growing gap in security awareness: the phone channel. Vishing has moved from a niche tactic to a mainstream attack vector, with CrowdStrike reporting a 442% surge in vishing activity between the first and second halves of 2024.
KnowBe4 launches simulated vishing capability for voice-based threat training.
Vishing activity surged 442% in second half of 2024 per CrowdStrike.
Employees 40% more likely to fall for phone-based simulations vs. email phishing.
Uses local caller ID, realistic personas, and multi-step customizable scenarios.
Results feed unified Risk Score across human and AI risk channels.
Available within KnowBe4 Platform's attack and simulation pillar.
KnowBe4's new simulated vishing capability extends security awareness training to the phone channel, one of the fastest-growing and least-tested vectors for social engineering. Employees practice recognizing live, high-pressure phone tactics in a safe environment, rather than encountering them for the first time from a real attacker. The simulations use local caller ID, realistic personas, and multi-step customizable scenarios that mirror how modern vishing attacks are actually carried out. Reporting on vishing susceptibility gives security leaders the same data-driven view of voice-based risk that contributes to the overall Risk Score.
"An urgent phone call from someone pretending to be your IT department or a C-level executive creates instant pressure, and cybercriminals are using AI voice cloning to make these calls unbelievably convincing," said Greg Kras, chief product officer, KnowBe4. "To build true organizational resilience, security teams can no longer focus solely on the inbox. With our new simulated vishing capability, we are equipping security leaders with the tools needed to train employees across every major social engineering vector to prevent these types of attacks."
"The organizations getting breached this year were not tricked by a generic phone scam script, but rather by a patient, adaptive conversation that felt legitimate at every step," Kras added. "Training employees against anything less than that is not training them for the threat they will actually face."
About KnowBe4
KnowBe4 empowers the modern workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA and a proprietary Risk Score. The platform leverages 15 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI.
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