PhishMe, a provider of anti-phishing training services, stressed the importance of education to prevent phishing and refuted Web security firm Trusteer's recent claim that education is not enough to prevent social engineering attacks.
In a Tuesday press release, PhishMe of New York City and Chantilly, Va., said it opposes a message from a Trusteer study that "continues to perpetuate the misconception that technology alone is the answer."
Since phishing attacks "focus on the human element to ensure success," organizations should not rely on technology alone as a prevention mechanism, the company said.
New York City-based Trusteer staged a phishing attack last month by sending e-mails listing LinkedIn as the sender to 100 subjects, 68 of whom "failed" their test by clicking on a link included in the e-mails. Trusteer said its experiment demonstrated that fraudsters can easily fool e-mail users and education is not a sufficient way to halt phishing attacks.
In their rebuttal, PhishMe executives said 68% is not a high failure rate for users who don't know how to spot phishing and that the same 100 subjects should have been re-tested after completing an anti-phishing education session.
"While we can agree with (Trusteer's) claims of social engineering making it 'easy to drive corporate users to fake websites that could potentially download malware onto their computer,' it is the way they draw their conclusion, their methodology, and their claim that only a technological solution is the answer that we take issue with," PhishMe CEO Rohyt Belani said in the press release.
"Companies need to be proactive in educating their customers to ensure they know what to look for to effectively reduce the risk of falling victim to phishing attacks," he said.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
