Wombat Security Enables City of Garland Employee to Stop Business Email Compromise Attack

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Wombat Security Technologies (Wombat), the leading provider of cyber security awareness and training, and its partner, Future Com — a leader in the network foundation, performance, and security space — today release a new industry case study illustrating how their security awareness and training solutions helped the City of Garland, the 13^th largest city in Texas, thwart a business email compromise (BEC) attack and reduce phishing susceptibility by 80%.

The road to improving its users' cybersecurity awareness and knowledge began when Shannon Mejia, the City of Garland's IT Support Services Manager, heard Chris Boykin, the CTO of Future Com, present at a local industry event. There, Boykin spoke about the importance of accounting for human behavior in managing risk, a philosophy that is reflected in Future Com's partnership with Wombat. Future Com uses Wombat's industry-leading assessment, education, reinforcement, and reporting tools to deliver effective security awareness and training services to its clients.

Shortly after meeting Boykin, Mejia began working with Future Com to assess City of Garland employees' phishing susceptibility. A simulated phishing campaign that was sent to 1,300 City of Garland employees generated a click rate of 31%. When this failure rate was shared with City managers, directors, and other officials, they agreed the City needed a robust security awareness training program for its users. Mejia worked with Future Com to design the cybersecurity curriculum, which features Wombat's ThreatSim® Phishing Simulations, year-round interactive training assignments, PhishAlarm® email reporting, and business intelligence tools.

The Results

During the first year of its awareness and training program, the City of Garland saw an average failure rate (across all campaigns, including the baseline assessment) of just over 17%. Three-quarters of the way through the second year of its program, the City's average failure rate across all campaigns dropped to just 3.4%, an 80% reduction from year one. As well, in the two months following implementation of the PhishAlarm reporting button, employees identified and reported more than 200 suspicious emails.

But the end-user improvements were noticeable beyond click rates and reported emails. The City of Garland also saw a real-world threat thwarted by an alert employee, who was able to identify and halt what could have been a costly BEC attack.

"We heard that, the following week, another city in Texas had the same exact type of attack happen to them," said the City of Garland's IT Support Services Manager, Shannon Mejia. "Unfortunately, their employees did not catch the scam, and they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because they were tricked into wiring money to a fraudulent account. Our employee really came through for us, and I don't believe we would have had the same outcome if we hadn't been delivering training."

For more information about the improvements seen at the City of Garland, as well as details of the BEC attack and Wombat's partnership with Future Com, view the entire case study. 

About Wombat Security Technologies 

Wombat Security Technologies provides information security awareness and training software to help organizations teach their employees secure behavior. Their SaaS-based cybersecurity education solution includes an integrated platform of knowledge assessments, simulated attacks, and brief interactive training modules. Wombat's solutions help organizations reduce successful phishing attacks and malware infections up to 90%. The company has been recognized by Gartner as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Computer-Based Training Vendors for four years in a row. Founded in 2008, Wombat is helping mid-market, Fortune 1000, and Global 2000 customers in industry segments such as finance and banking, energy, technology, higher education, retail and consumer packaged goods to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.

About Future Com

With more than twenty-five years of industry experience, Future Com, Ltd. is a leader in the network foundation, performance, and security space. Future Com is an integrator of top industry partners, selling customized technology and managed services solutions to suit any of today's network needs. Future Com offers hardware, appliances, software, support, and consulting services to top enterprises, small and medium businesses, and healthcare, government, and educational entities throughout the US. With certified network engineers and 24x7 support, Future Com helps organizations maximize resource utilization, simplify operations, and improve network security. Future Com has partnered with Wombat Security to deliver security awareness training solutions since 2013.

About the City of Garland, TX

Garland is the 13th largest city in Texas and reported an estimated population of 240,000. The community was incorporated in 1891 and is today a major manufacturing and industrial hub for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. Garland is the second most populous city in Dallas County and enjoys convenient access to downtown Dallas via public transportation, which includes two DART Blue Line stations. Located adjacent to northern and eastern Dallas, Garland is a culturally diverse city with a rich history, and the community celebrates a vast array of shopping, arts, outdoor activities, and special events.

SOURCE Wombat Security Technologies

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