KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training

Score9.3 out of 10

1,089 Reviews and Ratings

What is KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training?

KnowBe4 is a security awareness and compliance training and simulated social engineering product. It is used by organizations worldwide to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.

The product includes a comprehensive suite of awareness and compliance training, real-time user coaching, AI-powered simulated social engineering, crowdsourced anti-phishing defense and an AI suite that enhances human risk management through personalized training and automation. With content in 35+ languages, KnowBe4 provides an always-fresh library of engaging content to strengthen an organization's human firewall.

KnowBe4 provides:

Baseline testing to assess the Phish-Prone™ Percentage of users through a free simulated phishing attack
Fully automated simulated phishing attacks, using thousands of customizable templates with unlimited usage
AI-Driven phishing and training recommendations based on users' phishing and training history
Enterprise strength reporting, showings stats and graphs for both training and phishing, ready for management
Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents (AIDA), AI-powered agents that reduce admin burden by automating template generation, training and reporting

Categories & Use Cases

Security Awareness Training

Media

Screenshot of the Phishing Dashboard. This displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.

Screenshot of the Virtual Risk Officer functionality, which helps identify risk to support data-driven decisions about a security awareness plan.

Screenshot of KnowBe4's partners, including The Security Awareness Company, Popcorn Training, exploqii, Twist & Shout, El Pescador, CLTRe, Saya University, and MediaPRO. Together, they create security awareness training content available in the ModStore.

Screenshot of a security training quiz question showing "Security Moments Series: Spot the Bad Link" asking what Lisa should do when receiving an unexpected email with an HTML attachment, with three answer options and Submit/Cancel buttons.

Screenshot of the AIDA Phishing Template Generator interface, which displays a customizable phishing simulation tool with template setup options on the left and a preview of a generated "Annual Bonus Announcement" email featuring a QR code attack vector on the right.

Screenshot of the AIDA Configure Training interface, which displays settings for personalized remedial phishing training, including user enrollment options, completion timeframes, knowledge refresher schedules, and notification preferences, with an "Activate Remedial Training" button to implement the configuration.

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Screenshot of the Phishing Dashboard. This displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.

Single sign-on capability
The software system supports a centralized authentication mechanism allowing the user to access multiple systems with a single, centrally managed password.
Category average: 9.3
Phishing Simulations
Administrators can run simulated phishing attacks to test the effectiveness of the training and assess vulnerabilities.
Category average: 9.1
Multilingual Training Content
Training content is available in multiple languages.
Category average: 9

Integration with Security Tech Stack
The product integrates with other security tools, such as a SIEM or SOAR platform, and may provide alerts for potential breaches.
Category average: 8.2
Individualized Security Training Plans
Training can be tailored to individual employees based on previous training, role, or assessed vulnerability.
Category average: 7.9
Industry-Specific Security Training
Security training can be tailored based on industry-specific requirements, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, etc.
Category average: 7.1

Daven Hunsicker

Technology Director in Information Technology at IC Imagine (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I'm the lead admin in my school for KnowBe4. I assign training to new staff and run an automated quarterly phishing test that goes to all of our 160+ staff. Those who fail the phishing test are automatically added to a group that has required remediation training. Since we've been using KnowBe4, our phishing prone score has improved and many staff have been able to successfully avoid phishing scams.

Pros

Automated testing of enrolled staff-we have a quarterly phishing test automated.
Huge library of resources in various formats are available in their library.
Allows multiple ways to create/sync user accounts.

Cons

Many items in the library aren't applicable to our use case, and it's sometimes difficult to filter out what I'm looking for.
I don't love the training dashboard, but maybe that's just a "me" thing.
Setting up groups can be tedious.

Return on Investment

We've had several phishing attempts that were "emergencies" to update banking information that users didn't fall for, so that has saved potentially thousands of dollars.
I don't have specific-hard numbers, but I do believe KnowBe4 has been very valuable to us.

Usability

Other Software Used

CrowdStrike Falcon, Zscaler Internet Access

João Paulo View profile

Chief Information Security Officer in Information Technology at Threatvector (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Preventing major risks to our company requires users to understand the potential threats we face, how we could be targeted, and how to protect both themselves and the organization. KnowBe4’s awareness training is essential to ensure all users stay informed and prepared.

Pros

Global company risk.
Improved Phishing campaigns.
Improved Training campaigns.

Cons

More constantly updated content.
Following the risk behaviour of users out of the box.
More languages on all content.

Return on Investment

Easily explainable return on investment to the board.
Helped prevent attacks that would be much more expensive.
Rapid return on investment guaranteed.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Cofense LMS and Proofpoint Essentials for Small Business

Other Software Used

Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus

Filipe Machado View profile

Technical support lead in Information Technology at Threatvector (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Preventing the major risk to our company means our users have to be aware of the dangers and how we could be targeted or attacked, and has to understand how to protect it self and the company , to which the awareness trainings from KnowBe4 are paramount to make sure all users are up to date.

Pros

Training campaigns
Phishing campaigns
Measure company risk

Cons

More languages on all content
More updated content
Follw risk behaviour out of the box

Return on Investment

Rapid return of investment
Easily explainable roi to board
Helped prevent attacks that would be 100x more expensive

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Cofense LMS and Proofpoint Essentials for Small Business

Other Software Used

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus, Cisco Umbrella

Dario Roas

Systems Analyst in Information Technology at Martin County BOCC (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

To increase user knowledge of phishing attempts from hackers. Basic training once a year, then extra training for phishing failures. All of our employees must go through the training.

Pros

Makes organization safer
Trains users
Alerts admins of tendencies

Cons

Reporting, more info logged on campaigns

Return on Investment

Required by our auditors
Reduces insurance costs
Reduces potential liability

Usability

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, OnBase

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We were using the phish alert training modules after simulated phishing campaigns. Users who failed too many consecutive times were enrolled in additional learning. Phishing remains one of the biggest methods employed by hackers to try to gain access, and people who were not learning how to identify a phish email needed the additional training.

Pros

Quality: Their videos have well recorded audio and a polished look in their animations. I have seen larger orgs use less professional looking learning
Accuracy: I found no fault in the information they had in their training. It's clear that knowledgeable people were involved with the creation of their content
Accessible: Information security can be a very complex topic. They have made easily understood content, making it easier for the users to understand what they need to do

Cons

Some videos were clearly stitched together from other videos. Those lacked the cohesive feel the individual videos had.
Some videos could have brought in some additional points and information to cover a wider variety of user best practices
Some of the live actor segments felt a little cheesy

Return on Investment

The campaign/training cycle showed a declining number of people falling for the campagins
Regularly updated training modules sometimes covered newer threats
Reporting was simple and easy to ingest for management