Continued surge of phishing and other social engineering threats fuel explosive 20th consecutive quarter increase
– KnowBe4, the world’s largest platform for integrated security awareness training and phishing announced its stellar year over year sales increase of 191% for Q1 2018, with an ever increasing number of new corporate accounts, customer accounts to well over 17,000. 
“We are super excited to achieve such hypergrowth for twenty consecutive quarters, five years straight. Our focus on our customers and providing them with a best-in-class platform, with always fresh content, has set us apart from the pack,” said KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman. “We’re continuing to innovate and provide customers with unique tools to strengthen their human firewall.”
Sjouwerman (pronounced “shower-man”) continued: “Cybercrime continues to evolve and attacks are proliferating as is the potential harm from ransomware, CEO fraud (BEC), phishing and other social engineering attacks. The costs and repercussions can be staggering for an organization, with damages projected to top $11.5 billion annually by 2019. Since cybercriminals continue to refine their methods, organizations must consider today's social engineering risks and to prevent legal liability "scale security measures to reflect the threat". They must train their workforce to make smarter security decisions and create a human firewall as an effective last line of defense when all security software fails, which it always will.”
CISOs and IT managers recognize the power and ease-of-use of the KnowBe4 platform to enable their employees to make smarter security decisions, reducing their social engineering attack surface. This recognition continues to power KnowBe4’s growth.
Other recent and notable milestones and awards for Q1 2018 include:
- The acquisition of Popcorn Training, expanding KnowBe4’s footprint into South Africa. Known to have the largest library in the world of security awareness training materials, this acquisition continues to keep training content always fresh.
- The opening of a new office for the company’s EMEA headquarters in Utrecht, Netherlands. At a time when phishing, social engineering, and ransomware attacks continue to run rampant across the globe, KnowBe4 is seizing the opportunity to bring its new-school security awareness training to a broader, world-wide audience.
- Release of an innovative new email security tool called “Mailserver Security Assessment” (MSA) automating the process of sending around 40 simulated malicious email messages that contain a variety of different message types including email with attachments that contain password-protected, macro zipped, and .exe files or have spoofed domains. KnowBe4 has now made it easy for IT pros to test their email server configurations and see what can types of malicious email can penetrate their organization’s network from the outside.
- Voted into the Top 100 of the SaaS 1000 (Software as a Service).
- Secured the #2 spot in Tampa Bay Times’ Top Work Places for 2018
- Achieved the #3 spot in the 2018 Best Places to Work in Technology and continues its phenomenal growth, topping 453 staff, an increase of 180% percent over last year.
According to Sjouwerman, “KnowBe4 has demonstrated that new-school security awareness training is a “must-do” for CEOs, C-level executives and managers in Finance and HR who are increasingly becoming targets for cyber criminals. Unlike other security awareness training providers, KnowBe4’s approach to training is designed to keep employees on their toes and provide personalized tests to keep users on their toes, with security top of mind.
For more information, visit www.KnowBe4.com
About KnowBe4
KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s most popular integrated new-school security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 17,000 organizations worldwide. Founded by data and IT security expert Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness of ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to security awareness training. Kevin Mitnick, internationally recognized computer security expert and KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer, helped design KnowBe4’s training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Thousands of organizations trust KnowBe4 to mobilize their end-users as the last line of corporate IT defense.
Number 231 on the 2017 Inc. 500 list, #50 on 2016 Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and #6 in Cybersecurity Ventures Cybersecurity 500. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida with European offices in England and the Netherlands.
