Phishing Susceptibility KPI

Phishing Susceptibility is a critical KPI that measures an organization's vulnerability to phishing attacks, directly impacting financial health and operational efficiency.

High susceptibility can lead to significant data breaches, resulting in costly remediation efforts and reputational damage.

By tracking this metric, organizations can enhance their cybersecurity posture, improve employee training, and ultimately safeguard sensitive information.

A proactive approach to managing phishing risks not only protects assets but also aligns with strategic goals of resilience and trust.

Reducing susceptibility can lead to better ROI metrics and a more secure business outcome.

How Phishing Susceptibility Connects to Your Strategy

Phishing Susceptibility is a priority 4 member of the Data Security KPI group, sitting just behind Data Breaches at priority 1, Incident Response Time at priority 2, and Malware Infections at priority 3, and ahead of Data Loss Prevention at priority 5. Its balanced scorecard perspective is internal process, and it functions as a lead metric: it measures human vulnerability in controlled simulations before that weakness turns into an actual breach or malware infection in the lagging counts.

The sharpest tension is with Security Awareness Training Completion Rate, the group's culture-facing measure. A failure rate that stays high despite high training completion points to content or delivery that is not working, so the two must be interpreted as a pair rather than celebrated separately. Reading susceptibility against Data Breaches and Malware Infections closes the loop from simulated failure to real-world consequence.

Measuring Phishing Susceptibility in Practice

The data originates in the phishing simulation platform and, for consequences, in incident logs. The first fork is what counts as a failure: clicking a link, opening an attachment, entering credentials, or failing to report. These are not interchangeable, and a rate built on link clicks will look very different from one built on credential entry. The second fork is the denominator, employees tested versus emails delivered versus campaign participants, which is exactly where the external sources part ways.

Segment by department, tenure, and repeat-clicker status, since a small group of repeat failures often drives the headline number and responds to different intervention than first-time clickers. Hold simulation difficulty roughly constant over time, because an easier or harder lure will move the rate without any change in real risk, and separate trained from untrained cohorts so training effect is not confounded with baseline exposure. Beware of gaming, where employees learn the sender pattern rather than the threat.

Common Pitfalls

Many organizations underestimate the impact of phishing susceptibility, often viewing it as a mere IT concern rather than a business imperative.

• Failing to conduct regular phishing simulations can lead to complacency. Without testing, employees may not recognize evolving threats, leaving the organization vulnerable to attacks.
• Neglecting to update training materials can result in outdated knowledge. Cyber threats evolve rapidly, and static training fails to address new tactics used by attackers.
• Overlooking the importance of a multi-layered security approach weakens defenses. Relying solely on technology without employee engagement creates gaps in security posture.
• Ignoring metrics and analytics prevents organizations from understanding their susceptibility trends. Without data-driven insights, it's challenging to measure improvement or identify weaknesses.

Improvement Levers

Enhancing phishing resilience requires a comprehensive strategy that combines technology, training, and continuous monitoring.

• Implement regular phishing simulations to test employee awareness. These exercises help identify knowledge gaps and reinforce training, ultimately reducing susceptibility.
• Update training programs frequently to reflect current threats. Engaging content that addresses real-world scenarios keeps employees informed and vigilant.
• Adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of security. MFA significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if credentials are compromised.
• Utilize advanced email filtering solutions to block phishing attempts before they reach employees. Robust filtering can prevent many attacks from ever being seen.

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Phishing Susceptibility Benchmarks

We have 10 relevant benchmarks in our benchmarks database.

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Reading the Benchmarks for Phishing Susceptibility

Four sources cover this metric, three from KnowBe4 and one from Proofpoint, and they diverge on population and denominator in ways customers must reconcile before comparing. The population split is the key one. KnowBe4's industry benchmarking work reports a baseline for employees at the pre-training stage, and its later report frames results around untrained end users, while its cross-year reports let you see the same construct measured in different periods. Proofpoint frames its figures around users inside phishing simulation campaigns rather than a fixed employee census.

That difference in framing changes the denominator: a rate built on employees tested is not the same as a rate built on messages sent or on campaign participants, and a trained cohort is not comparable to an untrained one. All four are cross-industry and global, so they are useful for understanding how failure is defined and how training shifts it, but the pre-training versus post-training distinction and the campaign-versus-census denominator have to be matched before any two figures can sit side by side. When reusing these, cite only how the sources frame the measure.

OKRs That Use Phishing Susceptibility

This KPI is already a named key result in the group's OKR set. Under the objective Strengthen defenses to proactively reduce security breaches and incidents, it appears as a directional key result to drive the phishing susceptibility rate down, alongside reductions in Data Breaches and Malware Infections, framing it as a preventive move against the most common attack vectors.

It also supports the objective Build a culture of security awareness and accountability across the organization, where it pairs naturally with Security Awareness Training Completion Rate. The group's best practices reinforce this: use the specific attack vectors employees fall for to tailor training, and treat two-factor authentication adoption as a linked control that blunts the credential theft phishing enables. Any percentage goal here is an illustrative team target, not a benchmark.

See OKR Examples for Data Security

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KPI Categories

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