A cyber security start-up which simulates phishing attacks within businesses has launched in Manchester.
Purplephish is backed by tech entrepreneur Paul Kenyon and aims to shift the focus from costly post-crime detection to crime prevention using software-based security awareness training.
The UK Government’s 2017 Cyber Security Breaches Survey reported that 46 per cent of businesses fall victim to such attacks, with 72 per cent of these due to staff receiving and opening fraudulent emails.
“Cyber security is a rising challenge for UK businesses and will be a huge growth area over the coming years,” said investor Kenyon.
“With high profile cyber-attacks crippling organisations, such as the Wannacry attack on the NHS last year, the scale of the threat is clear. Human error and lack of education has been pinpointed in a number of studies, with 80 per cent of businesses not addressing cyber training within their employee base.
“We see a clear opportunity to work with organisations of all sizes, helping them strengthen their approach to such business challenges.
“I firmly believe Purplephish can help shape this market, differentiated by their leading edge technology and unique approach taken to educating end users.”
Purplephish’s developers have designed and built the solution utilising Salesforce, enabling the creation of a user-friendly interface with easy organisational roll-out, simulating phishing attacks and providing organisations with actionable intelligence on their susceptibility to incidents, reducing their vulnerability.
Using its simulate, evaluate, educate, calibrate methodology, businesses can test employees’ susceptibility to cyber threats, discover the areas of exposure, educate through interactive training modules and monitor over time, while pitting performance against industry peers.
Deploying attack simulations built and designed by security experts allows businesses to train users against real-life scenarios. This means employees are prepared for the threats they will face in a real-world environment and not just a classroom exercise.