Barracuda Networks Inc., of Campbell, Calif., has added integrated end user education services to its cloud-based email security products.
The new feature supplements the link protection functionality included in products such as Barracuda Essentials for Email Security and Barracuda Essentials for Office 365, which protects end users from business email compromise scams, phishing schemes, and other email-based hacks by preventing them from clicking on malicious hyperlinks masquerading as legitimate ones. Users who fall for such attacks will now see a security warning message (pictured below) that includes a link to security awareness training exercises from KnowBe4 Inc., of Clearwater, Fla.
Those courses, which take about five minutes to complete, are designed to help users understand and recognize email security threats, and include a brief test that evaluates their ability to apply the knowledge they just acquired.
“Ransomware is soaring and now considered to be one of the top three most dangerous malware threats most frequently spread through email,” said KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman in a press statement. “Uneducated employees are most commonly the weakest link in network security. KnowBe4 education training integrated with Barracuda security provides organizations comprehensive layered security—adding a human firewall to the existing security technology—to keep organizations, their employees and their data safe.”
Business email compromise attacks, which seek to fool users into sharing sensitive information, disclosing passwords, and performing fraudulent money transfers, are now a $3.1 billion a year business, according to the FBI. Along with ransomware and advanced persistent threats, they’re also one of several mushrooming risks that have global spending on security hardware, software, and services climbing at over twice the rate of overall IT spending growth, according to IDC.
“With highly sophisticated phishing campaigns on the rise, and real money at stake, it’s important for organizations to protect their users, data, and assets both through technology and empowering their workforce with education,” said Sanjay Ramnath, Barracuda’s vice president of security products and business strategy in today’s press release. “Together, Barracuda and KnowBe4 provide powerful anti-phishing technology combined with education training, both critical to any organization’s security posture.”
The new addition of KnowBe4 services to Barracuda’s hosted email security portfolio comes close to three months after the former vendor signed an agreement to provide awareness training to customers of Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor Tech Data Inc. and the introduction of a new tool from Barracuda for detecting threats in Microsoft Office 365 emails.
