Learn how phishing simulations help organizations measure employee susceptibility to email-based attacks. Articles cover simulation design, realistic phishing templates, campaign scheduling, result analysis, and strategies for turning simulation data into stronger security behaviors.
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In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a threat actor social-engineered their way past the help desk with a single phone call. The attackers didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability. They didn't write custom malware. They called an employee, pretended to be someone from IT,
The Click That Cost One Company $47 Million In 2023, MGM Resorts was brought to its knees — not by a sophisticated zero-day exploit, but by a single social engineering phone call that led to credential theft. The resulting breach caused an estimated $100 million in damages. And it started with
What a Phish Setlist Actually Means for Your Security Team When the band Phish takes the stage, they never play the same setlist twice. Every show is crafted for the audience. Your phishing simulation program should work the same way. A phish setlist — a curated, rotating collection of phishing attack
A 45-Minute Quiz Stopped a $3 Million Wire Fraud In 2023, a mid-size logistics company in Ohio avoided a devastating business email compromise attack — not because of their firewall, not because of their SOC team, but because an accounts payable clerk recognized a spoofed domain. She'd seen the
The Phishing Email That Came From PayPal's Own Servers In late 2024, security researchers at Avanan documented a campaign where threat actors sent phishing invoices through PayPal's actual invoicing system — meaning the emails passed SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks flawlessly. The same tactic has since merged
The Email That Cost One Company $121 Million In 2019, a Lithuanian national named Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to stealing over $121 million from Google and Facebook using nothing more than fake invoices and spoofed email addresses. No zero-day exploits. No sophisticated malware. Just phishing emails that looked like they
In 2023, a single phishing email cost MGM Resorts an estimated $100 million. The threat actor didn't exploit a zero-day vulnerability or deploy exotic malware. They called the help desk, impersonated an employee found on LinkedIn, and got a password reset. That's it. If you'
The Breach That Started With a Single Click In 2023, MGM Resorts lost an estimated $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered an IT help desk employee. One phone call. One credential reset. That's all it took to bring a $14 billion company to its
A Legitimate Invoice From PayPal — That's Also a Scam In late 2024, security researchers at Avanan documented a campaign where threat actors sent real PayPal invoices to victims — not spoofed emails, not lookalike domains, but actual invoices generated through PayPal's own platform. The emails passed every
The Breach That Bankrupted a 40-Person Company In 2023, a small accounting firm in Sacramento lost every client record it had. An employee clicked a link in what looked like a DocuSign notification. Within 72 hours, the ransomware encrypted everything — backups included. The firm closed its doors three months later.
