What You Need to Know About KnowBe4's New PhishER Plus Threat Intel

Heard of KnowBe4, readers? Be it from a workplace training assignment, other security-centric news articles – any of those ringing a bell?

Changes are, you answered that question with a firm “Yes.” It’s no surprise, either; Forrester Research has named KnowBe4 as a top leader in security awareness and training solutions for several years in a row, as the company’s user-friendly platform is as intuitive as it is powerful, in terms of education and protections. KnowBe4 establishes important baselines (in terms of phishing-prone activities, in particular) and supports user training with a huge library of pertinent resources, all while leveraging its enterprise-strength reporting so users are well-equipped to monitor their progress and make data-driven decisions with real confidence.

KnowBe4 offers its AI-powered Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing tools (tackling sophisticated phishing attempts and social engineering, in particular), as well as its real-time SecurityCoach, PhishER Plus, and its Compliance Plus training that delivers continuously updated, engaging and customizable content.

Well, as of just last week, there’s another KnowBe4 solution to add to this list:

PhishER Plus Threat Intel.

The long-story-short of it is simple: PhishER Plus Threat Intel is all about security orchestration and proactive – that’s a key word here, given reactivity doesn’t really cut it anymore – anti-phishing protection that allows security and incident response teams to promptly identify and stop phishing threats before they even reach users’ inboxes.

In less long-story-short terms: This new feature integrates from Webroot directly into the existing PhishER Plus console, enabling faster automated detection and response to evolving threats. Another threat intelligence source described how PhishER Plus Threat Intel “eliminates the need for manual searches and enhances threat detection by surfacing comprehensive data on website reputation and threat history.” This, in a sense, frees up teams to place their focus elsewhere while still ensuring consistent responses to attacks across their respective organizations.

Furthermore, PhishER Plus Threat Intel has a triple-validated phishing threat feed that uses KnowBe4’s global network of 10+ million highly trained end-users and their PhishER Administrators, the company’s PhishML AI model, and of course human-curated threat intelligence, courtesy of KnowBe4’s Threat Research lab.

Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4’s CEO, described how adding this new feature means “we [KnowBe4] are definitively arming security teams with the automated threat detection and accelerated response capabilities they need to stay ahead of increasing cybersecurity attacks – while bolstering an organization’s defense system, in tow.”

“And Webroot,” Sjouwerman added, “is already a renowned threat intelligence leader, which is why this integration with KnowBe4’s PhishER Plus platform will allow SOCs to more quickly identify and address web-based threats with greater efficiency.”