Barracuda Security Awareness Training vs. KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus

Barracuda Security Awareness Training is well suited for companies that are looking to automate and schedule phishing simulation, education, and training on a regular basis. It would be less appropriate for companies that already have a security awareness training platform already implemented.

Incentivized

I have been able to create customized simulated phishing campaigns that are really testing our users ability to "spot the fake." That coupled with the training campaigns that are included make it much more likely that our users will be better prepared to protect our organization by being able to recognize common industry threats, and brings awareness to less common threats that are out there. I love that they have a shared folder full of relevant, recent real-world scams that we can choose from to train our user base.

Incentivized

• The software helps us create emails that look exactly or almost exactly the same as the phishing emails we found in our email gateway.
• We already use the ESS gateway from Barracuda Networks, and in the TEP bundle, this software is included, so it's not that much work to also configure this.
• In the software, we can see reports on how our users performed. We can make a selection of users that are more prone to click on "false" links, and this way, we can help them individually.

Incentivized

• Analysis and classification of phishing emails using machine learning
• Response to reporting users with personalised emails template
• Automatic response and actions using integration with Microsoft
• Good dashboard with reporting and KPI
• Integration with others product to improve scan and analysis
• It improves users' security awareness and behavior as receiving an immediate response with the analysis result improves the ability to recognize a phishing email

Incentivized

• Providing animated templates for custom campaigns would be helpful, potentially a "builder site" where templates could be put together with custom questions/answers.
• Reporting through functional could use some work. We typically create phishing tests to help our users learn how to spot concerns, and the reports do not provide who actually "reported" the phish as opposed to who did not. This has been a year-long request to Barracuda, and the same issue is present in our campaigns as well.
• We would love to see an annual release of new training topics and campaign ideas.

Incentivized

• Enhancing the automated response capabilities, such as directly initiating remediation processes or integrating with other cybersecurity tools, could further streamline the threat management process.
• Implementing a feedback system where users can be informed about the outcome of their reported emails might encourage more proactive engagement.
• the reporting tool is not as streamlined on mobile devices as it is on desktops. Enhancing mobile functionality would be beneficial

Incentivized

Although cost competitive, we still feel like we are not digging deep enough to train our staff. We have little to no way other than digging through reports that have not proven to be adequately documented (hey you, Barracuda campaign reports) to identify and require users to take more training who have not passed their requirements.

Incentivized

Phish ER has reduced the time my team and I spend on reported emails by over 80%. With the volume of emails reported and a small team this is a must have.

Once you are started it is great. The only issue is to get started. The administrator interface [I feel] is not intuitive enough. It lacks some kind of quick start wizard. The templates are good and fit several regions. So we can do our Belgian campaign and French campaign, each with a different template.

Incentivized

The configuration is a bit complicated, but easy once you get the hang of it. Once configured, it is easy to manage our malicious emails that are reported by our staff.

Incentivized

Working with Barracuda PhishLine support is always a good experience. They are very professional, they are attentive and they are courteous. When I first purchased Barracuda PhishLine a few year ago it was new to them as well. At the time, the support staff could been better trained. That said, they worked hard to help and resolve my issues.

Incentivized

Support has been easy to get along with and easy to understand.

Incentivized

Work with support or rep for some basic steps, the rest is pretty straight foward.

Incentivized

365 defender has a tool for user security training, it is much more rudimentary than Barracudas, but the interface is much nicer. Both offer email attack testing, reporting, and training, but barracuda offers additional attack types, like file and SMS testing. Both seem to come free with other software and can be brought as add-ons.

Incentivized

KnowBe4 PhishER has a lot of features that other companied does not have. Its AI capability, integration with VirusTotal, PhishRIP and PhishFlip features make it totally different from other solutions. Its Phish Alert Button directly installed on users Outlook without affecting them and the reporting technique is very simple, just clicking on the Phish Alert Button and the email will be directly reported to the KnowBe4 PhishER dashboard. KnowBe4 PhishER dashboard is a very good example of centralized dashboard where you can find all things related to that reported email.

Incentivized

• We have seen a huge improvement in user non-engagement with phishing emails.
• We now have a well-educated group of employees that are very adept at knowing malware when they see it.
• A great tool for IT staff that saves time with training resources.

Incentivized

• It has greatly increased phishing / security awareness by our staff by having a designated button & process for reporting phishing emails
• It provides greater protection through the ability to delete emails from multiple recipients even if not all of them reported the email
• It saves time for me to have to evaluate whether or not an email reported is a real threat through the ML/AI/VirusTotal scores

Incentivized