Reducing the likelihood that human decision-making becomes the point of failure in a cyber attack
Reducing the likelihood that human decision-making becomes the point of failure in a cyber attack.
Many cybersecurity awareness programmes fail because they focus on policy compliance rather than how users actually behave in SaaS environments. But cyber criminals don't exploit what your employees know. They exploit how they react. This session is entirely different. It tests in real-time how your employees will react to real-world modern social engineering and phishing attempts. In a real-life cyberattack, hackers don't just exploit code — they exploit human psychology, relying on high-stress environments, artificial deadlines, and operational chaos to force mistakes. If we only train employees when they are calm, they will fail when they are panicked. This fast-paced, interactive simulation lab dismantles those exact psychological traps by forcing your team to step into the hacker's shoes before a real attacker targets them.
Traditional security awareness programmes often fail to reduce real-world susceptibility to phishing and social engineering, particularly among high-risk users repeatedly targeted through credential harvesting emails, MFA fatigue attacks, and impersonation-based scams such as fake IT support or document-signing requests. These threats easily bypass traditional secure email gateways like Proofpoint or Mimecast by using legitimate, hijacked internal email accounts. This intervention matters because it moves beyond generic training to focus on observable behavioural change under realistic conditions. By combining adversary-informed scenarios with targeted 1:1 or small group coaching, it addresses the decision-making patterns attackers exploit, including urgency bias, authority pressure, and workflow familiarity. The result is reduced repeat susceptibility, improved threat recognition, and faster reporting of suspicious activity, lowering organisational exposure to credential compromise, data exfiltration, and business email compromise.
Designed for employees, managers, and high-risk users who handle sensitive data, process payments or invoices, or make approval decisions that could expose the organisation to cyber risk.
1. Pressure Test Employee Decisions Under Real-World Cyber Attack Scenarios
Employees are exposed to realistic phishing and social engineering scenarios designed to mirror modern attack techniques, including:
2. Identify Employee Security Misconceptions and Behavioural Drivers of Risk
We examine what influenced the decision:
3. Reinforce Better Security Decisions at Critical Moments
Participants learn practical techniques to:
The result is not simply greater awareness. It is more consistent decision-making under pressure, reducing repeat phishing susceptibility. By stress-testing your team against these complex, blended information security risk scenarios in a safe environment, we break the cycle of reactive mistakes and transform vulnerable targets into a battle-tested front line of defence.
We work collaboratively with organisations to define and measure success based on changes in real-world security behaviour, not just participation or completion metrics.
1. Reduction in repeat phishing susceptibility
We partner with your IT teams to track changes in how high-risk users respond to targeted phishing simulations over time, with a focus on reducing repeat susceptibility and improving recovery after intervention.
2. Improvement in verification behaviour
We assess, alongside your internal security or risk teams where appropriate, whether employees consistently apply structured verification steps when responding to urgent or high-trust communications across email, messaging platforms, and cross-channel requests.
3. Increased identification and reporting of suspicious activity
We measure improvements in the speed and consistency of escalation and reporting of potential phishing and social engineering attempts, particularly in realistic, high-pressure scenarios.
4. Behavioural change under realistic conditions
We evaluate decision-making in simulated environments to understand whether employees pause, validate, and challenge requests before acting, especially when urgency, authority, or familiarity cues are present.
Success is defined collaboratively: fewer high-risk decisions under pressure, reduced repeat susceptibility in targeted user groups, and stronger, more consistent verification behaviours across the organisation.
Reduced exposure to targeted phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Reduces the likelihood of successful credential harvesting, impersonation attacks and account takeover attacks by strengthening employee resistance to AI-enabled, highly personalised phishing scenarios built using publicly available information about the organisation and its people.
Strengthened verification behaviour under real-world attack conditions
Improves consistent application of structured verification steps when responding to urgent or high-trust communications, including AI-enabled impersonation attempts via email, messaging platforms, and voice-based social engineering.
Lowered risk of credential compromise leading to data exfiltration
Reduces attacker ability to progress from initial inbox compromise to lateral movement and extraction of sensitive organisational data.
Faster detection and escalation of malicious communications
Decreases attacker dwell time by improving the speed and consistency with which suspicious emails and messages are reported.
Aligned with ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, NIS2 and Cyber Essentials human security requirements.
Delivered via secure, enterprise-grade video conferencing platform by a SANS-certified human risk instructor.
60 minutes
Instructor-led sessions delivered one-to-one or in small groups, using real-world scenarios to test how users respond to cyber risk in practice.
There is an old military saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Cyber security is no different. Many organisations have spent years building elaborate policies, protocols, and technical defences, yet still experience successful breaches when attackers bypass controls through targeted social engineering that exploits human judgement and decision-making under pressure. Your security policies and verification checks look solid until they meet the attacker. The most resilient organisations are not defined by the comprehensiveness of their security policies, but by the ability of their people to respond correctly under pressure. Pressure testing your human controls is where you find out whether your security policies hold up in the real world or only on paper. This is what builds real resilience against identity-driven cyber attacks.