US20180307844A1 - Using smart groups for simulated phishing training and phishing campaigns - Google Patents

Abstract

This disclosure describes systems and methods for adding users to user groups based on interactions with simulated phishing emails and completion of remediation training. The systems and methods allow a server to automatically add a user of a first user group to a second user group responsive to that user interacting with a simulated phishing email that was sent as part of a simulated phishing campaign. For example, the user added to the second user group is removed from the first user group. The systems and methods further allow the server to electronically track the remediation training completed by that user, and responsive to the completion of remediation training, the server may automatically add the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
• The present application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/488,474, filed Apr. 21, 2017, and titled “USING SMART GROUPS FOR SIMULATED PHISHING TRAINING AND PHISHING CAMPAIGNS,” which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
• This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for using smart user groups in simulated phishing training and phishing campaigns.
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE
• It can be useful to perform simulated phishing attacks on a user or a set of users. A phishing attack involves an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card details, etc., often for malicious reasons, possibly by masquerading as a trustworthy entity. For example, an email may be sent to a target, the email having an attachment that performs malicious actions when executed or a link to a webpage that either performs malicious actions when accessed or prompts the user to execute a malicious program. Malicious actions may be malicious data collection or actions harmful to the normal functioning of a device on which the email was activated, or any other malicious actions capable of being performed by a program or a set of programs. Simulated phishing attacks allow an organization to determine the level of vulnerability to phishing attacks of a user or set of users. This knowledge can be used by internet technology organizations to reduce this level of vulnerability through tools or training.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
• Dynamic groups are being used for purposes of reporting. For example, when an administrator searches for users that meet criteria with Boolean logic (e.g., in crystal reports with query), a report can be generated and saved. Every time the administrator runs a report, data is generated based on query.
• Conceptually, similar types of dynamic groups have been used in an active directory that uses groups for distribution lists (e.g., dynamic distribution groups as used in IT environment). Dynamic group systems may be used in a manual method for security groups and in scripts that run on a regular basis for managing group membership. These types of groups have been used in things like reporting where you can create criteria of what you are going to include in a report.
• In some cases, campaign management system may only use static groups. Static groups are either manually managed or they are managed through some kind of a workflow process. For example, users that meet a criterion may be manually added into a static group and can only be taken out of the static group by a workflow process or by a manual action.
• There are several different problems that this solution addresses. Some problems include workflow inefficiencies and workflow inaccuracies resulting from the use of static groups to form different user groups based on different criteria. For example, customers reported running into scenarios where they would try to take users out of one static group and put them into another static group which resulted in many permutations of users that have been trained, have been phished, have failed a phishing test, have done remediation training, etc. It is realized that you could have an infinite number of static groups that are being driven by workflows and manual actions. If a workflow process isn't being handled accurately, users will get missed. Because static groups are driven by user workflows and an administrator, mistakes can and do happen. This results in a huge process, a relatively large number of groups, and administrators needing to remember to put the correct users in static groups to start off
• Smart groups of the present disclosure provide a solution to these problems by accurately and automatically building a list of users that meet specified criteria at the moment that the list of users is needed. Smart groups are essentially query based groups.
• This present solution expands on similar concepts in reporting where you can now create a group which contains users where those users meet certain criteria, and then produce a report based on the list of users. Smart groups enable similar dynamic creation of groups for purposes other than reporting, for example for training and phishing campaigns.
• This solution is better than the static group solution because all the administrator needs to do is specify the criteria they care about. Unlike static groups, where the administrator needs to keep track of the status of individual users and move them between static groups as their status changes, smart groups allows for automatic identification of the relevant users at the moment that an action needs to be taken. This feature automates user management for the purposes of enrollment in either phishing and training campaigns.
• Another reason that this solution is better than previous solutions is because workflow driven user group membership can result in a very large number of specific logic branches that need rules to handle them. This can be especially cumbersome to an administrator that will easily lose track of these rules.
• Because the smart group membership is determined as the group is about to be used for something, the smart group membership is always accurate and never outdated. The query that determines the smart group membership gets run at the time when you are about to do a campaign or perform some other action that needs to know the membership of the smart group. The smart group is always going to be based on whatever criteria an administrator specified when the group was created.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the disclosure will become more apparent and better understood by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
• FIG. 1A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a network environment comprising a client device in communication with a server device;
• FIG. 1B is a block diagram depicting a cloud computing environment comprising a client device in communication with cloud service providers;
• FIGS. 1C and 1D are block diagrams depicting embodiments of computing devices useful in connection with the methods and systems described herein.
• FIG. 2 depicts some of the architecture of an implementation of a system configured to automatically add users to user groups responsive to a user interacting with simulated phishing emails and responsive to a user completing electronically tracked remediation training.
• FIG. 3A depicts an implementation of a method for adding users to user groups responsive to a user interacting with simulated phishing emails and responsive to a user completing electronically tracked remediation training.
• FIG. 3B depicts an embodiment of the method whereby the system tracks the number times the user of a first user group has interacted with simulated phishing emails and adds the user to a second user group responsive to this number reaching a predetermined threshold.
• FIG. 3C depicts an embodiment of the method whereby the system tracks the number of courses of electronically tracked remediation training the user, who is a member of the second user group, has completed and adds the user to a predetermined user group corresponding to one or more courses of the number of courses the user has completed.
• FIG. 3D depicts an embodiment of the method whereby the system adds users of a first user group to a second user group responsive to receiving an indication that a user has interacted with a simulated phishing email, and keeping the user in the second user group while adding the user back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group responsive to receiving an indication that the user completed remediation training.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
• For purposes of reading the description of the various embodiments below, the following descriptions of the sections of the specification and their respective contents may be helpful:
• Section A describes a network environment and computing environment which may be useful for practicing embodiments described herein.
• Section B describes embodiments of systems and methods for adding users to user groups.
• Section C describes embodiments of systems and methods for using smart groups.
• A. Computing and Network Environment
• Prior to discussing specific embodiments of the present solution, it may be helpful to describe aspects of the operating environment as well as associated system components (e.g., hardware elements) in connection with the methods and systems described herein. Referring toFIG. 1A, an embodiment of a network environment is depicted. In brief overview, the network environment includes one ormore clients102a-102n(also generally referred to as local machine(s)102, client(s)102, client node(s)102, client machine(s)102, client computer(s)102, client device(s)102, endpoint(s)102, or endpoint node(s)102) in communication with one ormore servers106a-106n(also generally referred to as server(s)106,node106, or remote machine(s)106) via one ormore networks104. In some embodiments, aclient102 has the capacity to function as both a client node seeking access to resources provided by a server and as a server providing access to hosted resources forother clients102a-102n.
• AlthoughFIG. 1A shows anetwork104 between theclients102 and theservers106, theclients102 and theservers106 may be on thesame network104. In some embodiments, there aremultiple networks104 between theclients102 and theservers106. In one of these embodiments, anetwork104′ (not shown) may be a private network and anetwork104 may be a public network. In another of these embodiments, anetwork104 may be a private network and anetwork104′ a public network. In still another of these embodiments,networks104 and104′ may both be private networks.
• Thenetwork104 may be connected via wired or wireless links. Wired links may include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), coaxial cable lines, or optical fiber lines. The wireless links may include BLUETOOTH, Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), an infrared channel or satellite band. The wireless links may also include any cellular network standards used to communicate among mobile devices, including standards that qualify as 1G, 2G, 3G, or 4G. The network standards may qualify as one or more generation of mobile telecommunication standards by fulfilling a specification or standards such as the specifications maintained by International Telecommunication Union. The 3G standards, for example, may correspond to the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specification, and the 4G standards may correspond to the International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) specification. Examples of cellular network standards include AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced, Mobile WiMAX, and WiMAX-Advanced. Cellular network standards may use various channel access methods e.g. FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, or SDMA. In some embodiments, different types of data may be transmitted via different links and standards. In other embodiments, the same types of data may be transmitted via different links and standards.
• Thenetwork104 may be any type and/or form of network. The geographical scope of thenetwork104 may vary widely and thenetwork104 can be a body area network (BAN), a personal area network (PAN), a local-area network (LAN), e.g. Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. The topology of thenetwork104 may be of any form and may include, e.g., any of the following: point-to-point, bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree. Thenetwork104 may be an overlay network which is virtual and sits on top of one or more layers ofother networks104′. Thenetwork104 may be of any such network topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the art capable of supporting the operations described herein. Thenetwork104 may utilize different techniques and layers or stacks of protocols, including, e.g., the Ethernet protocol, the internet protocol suite (TCP/IP), the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technique, the SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking) protocol, or the SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) protocol. The TCP/IP internet protocol suite may include application layer, transport layer, internet layer (including, e.g., IPv6), or the link layer. Thenetwork104 may be a type of a broadcast network, a telecommunications network, a data communication network, or a computer network.
• In some embodiments, the system may include multiple, logically-groupedservers106. In one of these embodiments, the logical group of servers may be referred to as a server farm38 (not shown) or a machine farm38. In another of these embodiments, theservers106 may be geographically dispersed. In other embodiments, a machine farm38 may be administered as a single entity. In still other embodiments, the machine farm38 includes a plurality of machine farms38. Theservers106 within each machine farm38 can be heterogeneous—one or more of theservers106 ormachines106 can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), while one or more of theother servers106 can operate on according to another type of operating system platform (e.g., Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X).
• In one embodiment,servers106 in the machine farm38 may be stored in high-density rack systems, along with associated storage systems, and located in an enterprise data center. In this embodiment, consolidating theservers106 in this way may improve system manageability, data security, the physical security of the system, and system performance by locatingservers106 and high performance storage systems on localized high performance networks. Centralizing theservers106 and storage systems and coupling them with advanced system management tools allows more efficient use of server resources.
• Theservers106 of each machine farm38 do not need to be physically proximate to anotherserver106 in the same machine farm38. Thus, the group ofservers106 logically grouped as a machine farm38 may be interconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or a metropolitan-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a machine farm38 may includeservers106 physically located in different continents or different regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, or room. Data transmission speeds betweenservers106 in the machine farm38 can be increased if theservers106 are connected using a local-area network (LAN) connection or some form of direct connection. Additionally, a heterogeneous machine farm38 may include one ormore servers106 operating according to a type of operating system, while one or moreother servers106 execute one or more types of hypervisors rather than operating systems. In these embodiments, hypervisors may be used to emulate virtual hardware, partition physical hardware, virtualize physical hardware, and execute virtual machines that provide access to computing environments, allowing multiple operating systems to run concurrently on a host computer. Native hypervisors may run directly on the host computer. Hypervisors may include VMware ESX/ESXi, manufactured by VMWare, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the Xen hypervisor, an open source product whose development is overseen by Citrix Systems, Inc.; the HYPER-V hypervisors provided by Microsoft or others. Hosted hypervisors may run within an operating system on a second software level. Examples of hosted hypervisors may include VMware Workstation and VIRTUALBOX.
• Management of the machine farm38 may be de-centralized. For example, one ormore servers106 may comprise components, subsystems and modules to support one or more management services for the machine farm38. In one of these embodiments, one ormore servers106 provide functionality for management of dynamic data, including techniques for handling failover, data replication, and increasing the robustness of the machine farm38. Eachserver106 may communicate with a persistent store and, in some embodiments, with a dynamic store.
• Server106 may be a file server, application server, web server, proxy server, appliance, network appliance, gateway, gateway server, virtualization server, deployment server, SSL VPN server, or firewall. In one embodiment, theserver106 may be referred to as a remote machine or a node. In another embodiment, a plurality of nodes290 may be in the path between any two communicating servers.
• Referring toFIG. 1B, a cloud computing environment is depicted. A cloud computing environment may provideclient102 with one or more resources provided by a network environment. The cloud computing environment may include one ormore clients102a-102n, in communication with thecloud108 over one ormore networks104.Clients102 may include, e.g., thick clients, thin clients, and zero clients. A thick client may provide at least some functionality even when disconnected from thecloud108 orservers106. A thin client or a zero client may depend on the connection to thecloud108 orserver106 to provide functionality. A zero client may depend on thecloud108 orother networks104 orservers106 to retrieve operating system data for the client device. Thecloud108 may include back end platforms, e.g.,servers106, storage, server farms or data centers.
• Thecloud108 may be public, private, or hybrid. Public clouds may includepublic servers106 that are maintained by third parties to theclients102 or the owners of the clients. Theservers106 may be located off-site in remote geographical locations as disclosed above or otherwise. Public clouds may be connected to theservers106 over a public network. Private clouds may includeprivate servers106 that are physically maintained byclients102 or owners of clients. Private clouds may be connected to theservers106 over aprivate network104.Hybrid clouds108 may include both the private andpublic networks104 andservers106.
• Thecloud108 may also include a cloud based delivery, e.g. Software as a Service (SaaS)110, Platform as a Service (PaaS)112, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)114. IaaS may refer to a user renting the use of infrastructure resources that are needed during a specified time period. IaaS providers may offer storage, networking, servers or virtualization resources from large pools, allowing the users to quickly scale up by accessing more resources as needed. Examples of IaaS include AMAZON WEB SERVICES provided by Amazon.com, Inc., of Seattle, Wash., RACKSPACE CLOUD provided by Rackspace US, Inc., of San Antonio, Tex., Google Compute Engine provided by Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., or RIGHTSCALE provided by RightScale, Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif. PaaS providers may offer functionality provided by IaaS, including, e.g., storage, networking, servers or virtualization, as well as additional resources such as, e.g., the operating system, middleware, or runtime resources. Examples of PaaS include WINDOWS AZURE provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., Google App Engine provided by Google Inc., and HEROKU provided by Heroku, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. SaaS providers may offer the resources that PaaS provides, including storage, networking, servers, virtualization, operating system, middleware, or runtime resources. In some embodiments, SaaS providers may offer additional resources including, e.g., data and application resources. Examples of SaaS include GOOGLE APPS provided by Google Inc., SALESFORCE provided by Salesforce.com Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., or OFFICE 365 provided by Microsoft Corporation. Examples of SaaS may also include data storage providers, e.g. DROPBOX provided by Dropbox, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., Microsoft SKYDRIVE provided by Microsoft Corporation, Google Drive provided by Google Inc., or Apple ICLOUD provided by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.
• Clients102 may access IaaS resources with one or more IaaS standards, including, e.g., Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI), Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI), or OpenStack standards. Some IaaS standards may allow clients access to resources over HTTP, and may use Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol or Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).Clients102 may access PaaS resources with different PaaS interfaces. Some PaaS interfaces use HTTP packages, standard Java APIs, JavaMail API, Java Data Objects (JDO), Java Persistence API (JPA), Python APIs, web integration APIs for different programming languages including, e.g., Rack for Ruby, WSGI for Python, or PSGI for Perl, or other APIs that may be built on REST, HTTP, XML, or other protocols.Clients102 may access SaaS resources through the use of web-based user interfaces, provided by a web browser (e.g. GOOGLE CHROME, Microsoft INTERNET EXPLORER, or Mozilla Firefox provided by Mozilla Foundation of Mountain View, Calif.).Clients102 may also access SaaS resources through smartphone or tablet applications, including, e.g., Salesforce Sales Cloud, or Google Drive app.Clients102 may also access SaaS resources through the client operating system, including, e.g., Windows file system for DROPBOX.
• In some embodiments, access to IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS resources may be authenticated. For example, a server or authentication server may authenticate a user via security certificates, HTTPS, or API keys. API keys may include various encryption standards such as, e.g., Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Data resources may be sent over Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
• Theclient102 andserver106 may be deployed as and/or executed on any type and form of computing device, e.g. a computer, network device or appliance capable of communicating on any type and form of network and performing the operations described herein.FIGS. 1C and 1D depict block diagrams of acomputing device100 useful for practicing an embodiment of theclient102 or aserver106. As shown inFIGS. 1C and 1D, eachcomputing device100 includes acentral processing unit121, and amain memory unit122. As shown inFIG. 1C, acomputing device100 may include astorage device128, aninstallation device116, anetwork interface118, an I/O controller123, display devices124a-124n, akeyboard126 and apointing device127, e.g. a mouse. Thestorage device128 may include, without limitation, an operating system, software, and a software of a simulated phishing attachsystem120. As shown inFIG. 1D, eachcomputing device100 may also include additional optional elements, e.g. amemory port103, abridge170, one or more input/output devices130a-130n(generally referred to using reference numeral130), and acache memory140 in communication with thecentral processing unit121.
• Thecentral processing unit121 is any logic circuitry that responds to and processes instructions fetched from themain memory unit122. In many embodiments, thecentral processing unit121 is provided by a microprocessor unit, e.g.: those manufactured by Intel Corporation of Mountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation of Schaumburg, Ill.; the ARM processor and TEGRA system on a chip (SoC) manufactured by Nvidia of Santa Clara, Calif.; the POWER7 processor, those manufactured by International Business Machines of White Plains, N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif. Thecomputing device100 may be based on any of these processors, or any other processor capable of operating as described herein. Thecentral processing unit121 may utilize instruction level parallelism, thread level parallelism, different levels of cache, and multi-core processors. A multi-core processor may include two or more processing units on a single computing component. Examples of a multi-core processors include the AMD PHENOM IIX2, INTEL CORE i5 and INTEL CORE i7.
• Main memory unit122 may include one or more memory chips capable of storing data and allowing any storage location to be directly accessed by themicroprocessor121.Main memory unit122 may be volatile and faster thanstorage128 memory.Main memory units122 may be Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or any variants, including static random access memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), Burst Extended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Single Data Rate Synchronous DRAM (SDR SDRAM), Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), or Extreme Data Rate DRAM (XDR DRAM). In some embodiments, themain memory122 or thestorage128 may be non-volatile; e.g., non-volatile read access memory (NVRAM), flash memory non-volatile static RAM (nvSRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Phase-change memory (PRAM), conductive-bridging RAM (CBRAIVI), Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS), Resistive RAM (RRAIVI), Racetrack, Nano-RAM (NRAM), or Millipede memory. Themain memory122 may be based on any of the above described memory chips, or any other available memory chips capable of operating as described herein. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 1C, theprocessor121 communicates withmain memory122 via a system bus150 (described in more detail below).FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment of acomputing device100 in which the processor communicates directly withmain memory122 via amemory port103. For example, inFIG. 1D themain memory122 may be DRDRAM.
• FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment in which themain processor121 communicates directly withcache memory140 via a secondary bus, sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, themain processor121 communicates withcache memory140 using the system bus150.Cache memory140 typically has a faster response time thanmain memory122 and is typically provided by SRAM, BSRAM, or EDRAM. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 1D, theprocessor121 communicates with various I/O devices130 via a local system bus150. Various buses may be used to connect thecentral processing unit121 to any of the I/O devices130, including a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, or a PCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. For embodiments in which the I/O device is a video display124, theprocessor121 may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) to communicate with the display124 or the I/O controller123 for the display124.FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment of acomputer100 in which themain processor121 communicates directly with I/O device130borother processors121′ via HYPERTRANSPORT, RAPIDIO, or INFINIBAND communications technology.FIG. 1D also depicts an embodiment in which local busses and direct communication are mixed: theprocessor121 communicates with I/O device130ausing a local interconnect bus while communicating with I/O device130bdirectly.
• A wide variety of I/O devices130a-130nmay be present in thecomputing device100. Input devices may include keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, touchpads, touch mice, multi-touch touchpads and touch mice, microphones, multi-array microphones, drawing tablets, cameras, single-lens reflex camera (SLR), digital SLR (DSLR), CMOS sensors, accelerometers, infrared optical sensors, pressure sensors, magnetometer sensors, angular rate sensors, depth sensors, proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, gyroscopic sensors, or other sensors. Output devices may include video displays, graphical displays, speakers, headphones, inkjet printers, laser printers, and 3D printers.
• Devices130a-130nmay include a combination of multiple input or output devices, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, Nintendo Wiimote for the WII, Nintendo WII U GAMEPAD, or Apple IPHONE. Some devices130a-130nallow gesture recognition inputs through combining some of the inputs and outputs. Some devices130a-130nprovides for facial recognition which may be utilized as an input for different purposes including authentication and other commands. Some devices130a-130nprovides for voice recognition and inputs, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, SIRI for IPHONE by Apple, Google Now or Google Voice Search.
• Additional devices130a-130nhave both input and output capabilities, including, e.g., haptic feedback devices, touchscreen displays, or multi-touch displays. Touchscreen, multi-touch displays, touchpads, touch mice, or other touch sensing devices may use different technologies to sense touch, including, e.g., capacitive, surface capacitive, projected capacitive touch (PCT), in-cell capacitive, resistive, infrared, waveguide, dispersive signal touch (DST), in-cell optical, surface acoustic wave (SAW), bending wave touch (BWT), or force-based sensing technologies. Some multi-touch devices may allow two or more contact points with the surface, allowing advanced functionality including, e.g., pinch, spread, rotate, scroll, or other gestures. Some touchscreen devices, including, e.g., Microsoft PIXELSENSE or Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, may have larger surfaces, such as on a table-top or on a wall, and may also interact with other electronic devices. Some I/O devices130a-130n, display devices124a-124nor group of devices may be augment reality devices. The I/O devices may be controlled by an I/O controller123 as shown inFIG. 1C. The I/O controller may control one or more I/O devices, such as, e.g., akeyboard126 and apointing device127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen. Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage and/or aninstallation medium116 for thecomputing device100. In still other embodiments, thecomputing device100 may provide USB connections (not shown) to receive handheld USB storage devices. In further embodiments, an I/O device130 may be a bridge between the system bus150 and an external communication bus, e.g. a USB bus, a SCSI bus, a FireWire bus, an Ethernet bus, a Gigabit Ethernet bus, a Fibre Channel bus, or a Thunderbolt bus.
• In some embodiments, display devices124a-124nmay be connected to I/O controller123. Display devices may include, e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCD), thin film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD), blue phase LCD, electronic papers (e-ink) displays, flexile displays, light emitting diode displays (LED), digital light processing (DLP) displays, liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, liquid crystal laser displays, time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS) displays, or 3D displays. Examples of 3D displays may use, e.g. stereoscopy, polarization filters, active shutters, or autostereoscopic. Display devices124a-124nmay also be a head-mounted display (HMD). In some embodiments, display devices124a-124nor the corresponding I/O controllers123 may be controlled through or have hardware support for OPENGL or DIRECTX API or other graphics libraries.
• In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 may include or connect to multiple display devices124a-124n, which each may be of the same or different type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices130a-130nand/or the I/O controller123 may include any type and/or form of suitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software to support, enable or provide for the connection and use of multiple display devices124a-124nby thecomputing device100. For example, thecomputing device100 may include any type and/or form of video adapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate, connect or otherwise use the display devices124a-124n. In one embodiment, a video adapter may include multiple connectors to interface to multiple display devices124a-124n. In other embodiments, thecomputing device100 may include multiple video adapters, with each video adapter connected to one or more of the display devices124a-124n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of thecomputing device100 may be configured for using multiple displays124a-124n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices124a-124nmay be provided by one or more other computing devices100aor100bconnected to thecomputing device100, via thenetwork104. In some embodiments software may be designed and constructed to use another computer's display device as a second display device124afor thecomputing device100. For example, in one embodiment, an Apple iPad may connect to acomputing device100 and use the display of thedevice100 as an additional display screen that may be used as an extended desktop. One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate the various ways and embodiments that acomputing device100 may be configured to have multiple display devices124a-124n.
• Referring again toFIG. 1C, thecomputing device100 may comprise a storage device128 (e.g. one or more hard disk drives or redundant arrays of independent disks) for storing an operating system or other related software, and for storing application software programs such as any program related to the simulated phishingattack system software120. Examples ofstorage device128 include, e.g., hard disk drive (HDD); optical drive including CD drive, DVD drive, or BLU-RAY drive; solid-state drive (SSD); USB flash drive; or any other device suitable for storing data. Some storage devices may include multiple volatile and non-volatile memories, including, e.g., solid state hybrid drives that combine hard disks with solid state cache. Somestorage device128 may be non-volatile, mutable, or read-only. Somestorage device128 may be internal and connect to thecomputing device100 via a bus150. Somestorage device128 may be external and connect to thecomputing device100 via a I/O device130 that provides an external bus. Somestorage device128 may connect to thecomputing device100 via thenetwork interface118 over anetwork104, including, e.g., the Remote Disk for MACBOOK AIR by Apple. Someclient devices100 may not require anon-volatile storage device128 and may be thin clients or zeroclients102. Somestorage device128 may also be used as aninstallation device116, and may be suitable for installing software and programs. Additionally, the operating system and the software can be run from a bootable medium, for example, a bootable CD, e.g. KNOPPIX, a bootable CD for GNU/Linux that is available as a GNU/Linux distribution from knoppix.net.
• Client device100 may also install software or application from an application distribution platform. Examples of application distribution platforms include the App Store for iOS provided by Apple, Inc., the Mac App Store provided by Apple, Inc., GOOGLE PLAY for Android OS provided by Google Inc., Chrome Webstore for CHROME OS provided by Google Inc., and Amazon Appstore for Android OS and KINDLE FIRE provided by Amazon.com, Inc. An application distribution platform may facilitate installation of software on aclient device102. An application distribution platform may include a repository of applications on aserver106 or acloud108, which theclients102a-102nmay access over anetwork104. An application distribution platform may include application developed and provided by various developers. A user of aclient device102 may select, purchase and/or download an application via the application distribution platform.
• Furthermore, thecomputing device100 may include anetwork interface118 to interface to thenetwork104 through a variety of connections including, but not limited to, standard telephone lines LAN or WAN links (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband), broadband connections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet-over-SONET, ADSL, VDSL, BPON, GPON, fiber optical including FiOS), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of the above. Connections can be established using a variety of communication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac CDMA, GSM, WiMax and direct asynchronous connections). In one embodiment, thecomputing device100 communicates withother computing devices100′ via any type and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol e.g. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Thenetwork interface118 may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interface card, PCMCIA network card, EXPRESSCARD network card, card bus network adapter, wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem or any other device suitable for interfacing thecomputing device100 to any type of network capable of communication and performing the operations described herein.
• Acomputing device100 of the sort depicted inFIGS. 1B and 1C may operate under the control of an operating system, which controls scheduling of tasks and access to system resources. Thecomputing device100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions of the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of the Unix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS for Macintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-time operating system, any open source operating system, any proprietary operating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, or any other operating system capable of running on the computing device and performing the operations described herein. Typical operating systems include, but are not limited to: WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS Server 2012, WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS Phone, WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS VISTA, and WINDOWS 7, WINDOWS RT, and WINDOWS 8 all of which are manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; MAC OS and iOS, manufactured by Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.; and Linux, a freely-available operating system, e.g. Linux Mint distribution (“distro”) or Ubuntu, distributed by Canonical Ltd. of London, United Kingom; or Unix or other Unix-like derivative operating systems; and Android, designed by Google, of Mountain View, Calif., among others. Some operating systems, including, e.g., the CHROME OS by Google, may be used on zero clients or thin clients, including, e.g., CHROMEBOOKS.
• Thecomputer system100 can be any workstation, telephone, desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer, netbook, ULTRABOOK, tablet, server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, smartphone or other portable telecommunications device, media playing device, a gaming system, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form of computing, telecommunications or media device that is capable of communication. Thecomputer system100 has sufficient processor power and memory capacity to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 may have different processors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. The Samsung GALAXY smartphones, e.g., operate under the control of Android operating system developed by Google, Inc. GALAXY smartphones receive input via a touch interface.
• In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 is a gaming system. For example, thecomputer system100 may comprise a PLAYSTATION 3, or PERSONAL PLAYSTATION PORTABLE (PSP), or a PLAYSTATION VITA device manufactured by the Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, a NINTENDO DS, NINTENDO 3DS, NINTENDO WII, or a NINTENDO WII U device manufactured by Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, anXBOX 360 device manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
• In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 is a digital audio player such as the Apple IPOD, IPOD Touch, and IPOD NANO lines of devices, manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. Some digital audio players may have other functionality, including, e.g., a gaming system or any functionality made available by an application from a digital application distribution platform. For example, the IPOD Touch may access the Apple App Store. In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 is a portable media player or digital audio player supporting file formats including, but not limited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA Protected AAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats and .mov, .m4v, and .mp4 MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.
• In some embodiments, thecomputing device100 is a tablet e.g. the IPAD line of devices by Apple; GALAXY TAB family of devices by Samsung; or KINDLE FIRE, by Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In other embodiments, thecomputing device100 is an eBook reader, e.g. the KINDLE family of devices by Amazon.com, or NOOK family of devices by Barnes & Noble, Inc. of New York City, N.Y.
• In some embodiments, thecommunications device102 includes a combination of devices, e.g. a smartphone combined with a digital audio player or portable media player. For example, one of these embodiments is a smartphone, e.g. the IPHONE family of smartphones manufactured by Apple, Inc.; a Samsung GALAXY family of smartphones manufactured by Samsung, Inc; or a Motorola DROID family of smartphones. In yet another embodiment, thecommunications device102 is a laptop or desktop computer equipped with a web browser and a microphone and speaker system, e.g. a telephony headset. In these embodiments, thecommunications devices102 are web-enabled and can receive and initiate phone calls. In some embodiments, a laptop or desktop computer is also equipped with a webcam or other video capture device that enables video chat and video call.
• In some embodiments, the status of one ormore machines102,106 in thenetwork104 is monitored, generally as part of network management. In one of these embodiments, the status of a machine may include an identification of load information (e.g., the number of processes on the machine, CPU and memory utilization), of port information (e.g., the number of available communication ports and the port addresses), or of session status (e.g., the duration and type of processes, and whether a process is active or idle). In another of these embodiments, this information may be identified by a plurality of metrics, and the plurality of metrics can be applied at least in part towards decisions in load distribution, network traffic management, and network failure recovery as well as any aspects of operations of the present solution described herein. Aspects of the operating environments and components described above will become apparent in the context of the systems and methods disclosed herein.
• B. Systems and Methods of Adding Users to User Groups Based on Interactions with Simulated Phishing Attacks and Remediation Training.
• This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for adding users to user groups based on interactions with simulated phishing emails and completion of remediation training. The systems and methods allow a server to automatically add a user of a first user group to a second user group responsive to that user interacting with a simulated phishing email that was sent as part of a simulated phishing campaign. In some embodiments, users in a user group are removed when the users are added to another user group. For example, the user added to the second user group is removed from the first user group. The systems and methods further allow the server to electronically track the remediation training completed by that user, and responsive to the completion of remediation training, the server may automatically add the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group. The systems and methods further allow the server to automatically add the user to one or more user groups upon detecting an event in connection with the user.
• In some embodiments, users remain members of a user group when the users are added to another user group. For example, the user remains a member of the first user group when the user is added to the second user group. In another example, the user remains a member of the second user group when the user is added back to the first user group or to the third user group.
• A simulated phishing attack may test the readiness of a security system or users of a system to handle phishing attacks such that malicious actions are prevented. A simulated phishing attack may, for example, target a large number of users, such as employees of an organization. Such an attack may be performed by a party friendly or neutral to the targets of the simulated attack. In one type of simulated phishing attack, an attempt is made to extract sensitive information using phishing methods, and any extracted information is used not for malicious purposes, but as part of a process of detecting weaknesses in security. Performing a simulated phishing attack can help expose a lack of vigilance and/or know-how in a user or set of users of a device in minimizing risk associated with such attacks. User know-how can be improved by providing targeted, real-time training to the user at the time of failing a test provided by a simulated phishing attack.
• A method of adding users to user groups is as follows. A system administrator, who could be a security manager or a third party on behalf of a security manager, configures a phishing email template which is used to generate simulated phishing emails that can masquerade as an email from a party known to the user, such as an executive of the company that employs the user. The email may be designed to appear interesting to the user, and may offer or promise, for example, access to an interesting tidbit of news, access to useful computer software, access to knowledge of how to perform a money making scheme, or any other thing that may be of interest. In some embodiments, the email may request that the user perform a certain action, such as providing sensitive information by replying to the email, or transferring money to an account owned by the attacker and then sending a reply email to confirm that the money has been transferred. A simulated phishing campaign is created by a simulated phishing campaign manager in accordance with selections made by the system administrator or another individual. A system administrator selects a first user group which contains the users that will be a part of the simulated phishing campaign. The system administrator selects a second user group for which to add those users that interact with a simulated phishing email that is configured to be part of the simulated phishing campaign, wherein the second user group is selected to receive electronically tracked remediation training. The system receives the selection of the first and second user groups.
• The system transmits one or more simulated phishing emails, according to the created simulated phishing campaign, to the users in the first user group. The server receives a first indication if a user of the first user group interacts with a simulated phishing email of the simulated phishing campaign. Responsive to receiving the first indication, the server automatically adds the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group. One example of a user interaction with a simulated phishing email is the user sending a reply to or forwarding the received email. Another example of a user interaction with a simulated phishing email is the user clicking on a link in the received email. In some embodiments, the server tracks the number of times the user interacts with simulated phishing emails and adds the user responsive to the number of times reaching a predetermined threshold. In some embodiments, the server receives an indication of a detection of an event in connection with a user, who is a member of the first user group, and responsive to receiving the indication, adds the user to a second user group.
• Once a user of a first user group is automatically added to the second user group, responsive to interacting with a simulated phishing email from the simulated phishing campaign, the user will begin to receive electronically tracked remediation training. When the user completes the remediation training, the server receives a second indication. In response to the second indication, the server automatically adds the user back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group. In some embodiments, the server tracks the number of courses of the electronically tracked remediation training the user has completed. In some embodiments, the server automatically adds the user, who is a member of the second user group, to a predetermined user group corresponding to one or more courses of the number of courses the user has completed. In some embodiments, the server automatically adds the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group responsive to the number of courses of electronically tracked remediation training reaching a given threshold. In further embodiments, the user may be removed from the second user group when the user is added the predetermined user group or when the user is added back to the first user group or to the third user group.
• Referring toFIG. 2 in a general overview,FIG. 2 depicts some of the architecture of an implementation of asystem200 capable of adding users to user groups in response to events. Thesystem200 is also capable of removing users from user groups in response to events.
• System200 includes aserver106. Theserver106 includes a usergroup management function212 which runs a simulatedphishing campaign manager250, which is responsible for executing the simulated phishing campaign. Theserver106 further includes anevent tracker234, a phishingemail interaction tracker235, aremediation training tracker236, and a user group selector238. The usergroup management function212 includes a usergroup management application214, a phishing emailuser interaction counter216, and a user remediationtraining completion counter218. Theserver106 includes several storage modules. Remediation training is stored instorage240. Users are stored instorage241. User groups are stored instorage242, and simulated phishing emails are stored instorage244.
• Each of theserver106, usergroup management function212, usergroup management application214, phishing emailuser interaction counter216, user remediationtraining completion counter218,event tracker234, phishingemail interaction tracker235,remediation training tracker236, user group selector238, simulatedphishing campaign manager250, user interface manager252, simulated phishing email generator254,messaging application270, andcommunications module264 may comprise a program, service, task, script, library, application or any type and form of executable instructions or code executable on one or more processors. Any of theserver106, usergroup management function212, usergroup management application214, phishing emailuser interaction counter216, user remediationtraining completion counter218,event tracker234, phishingemail interaction tracker235,remediation training tracker236, user group selector238, simulatedphishing campaign manager250, user interface manager252, simulated phishing email generator254,messaging application270 and/orcommunications module264 may be combined into one or more modules, applications, programs, services, tasks, scripts, libraries, applications, or executable code.
• The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 includes a simulated phishing email generator254, which may be implemented as or contain avirtual machine256. Responsive to a user input, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 generates a campaign for a simulated phishing attack, including one or more selected phishing email templates, one or more selected landing page templates, and one or more selected targeted user groups, in addition to other user input.
• In an implementation,system200 includes aserver106. Theserver106 may be a part of a cluster of servers. In some embodiments, tasks performed by theserver106 may be performed by a plurality of servers. These tasks may be allocated among the cluster of servers by an application, service, daemon, routine, or other executable logic for task allocation. Theserver106 may include a processor and memory.
• The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may manage various aspects of a simulated phishing attack campaign. For example, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may process input from theserver106 and/or may provide access as needed to various applications, modules, and other software components of theserver106 to other various applications, modules, and other software components of theserver106. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may monitor and control timing of various aspects of a simulated attack campaign, may process requests for access to simulated attack campaign results, and/or may perform other tasks related to the management of a simulated attack campaign.
• In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign module250 may be integrated with or coupled tomemory122. In some embodiments, the memory may include any type and form of storage, such as a database or file system. Thememory122 may store data such as parameters and scripts associated with a particular simulated phishing campaign. In an example, thememory122 may store a set of parameters and scripts corresponding to the choices made by aserver106 through a simulatedphishing campaign manager250, e.g. as described above for a particular simulated phishing attack.
• In an implementation, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 includes a simulated phishing email generator254. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be integrated with or coupled to thememory122 so as to provide the simulated phishing email generator254 accesses to parameters associated with messaging choices made for a particular simulated campaign by e.g. theserver106. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be integrated with or coupled to memory or a memory store or otherwise a storage, such as a database, containingfailure remediation training240. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be integrated with or coupled to memory or a memory store or otherwise a storage, such as a database, containingusers241. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be integrated with or coupled to memory or a memory store or otherwise a storage, such as a database, containinguser groups242. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be integrated with or coupled to memory or a memory store or otherwise a storage, such as a database, containing simulated phishing emails244. The simulated phishing email generator254 may be an application, service, daemon, routine, or other executable logic for generating messages. The messages generated by the simulated phishing email generator254 may be of any appropriate format. For example, they may be email messages, text messages, messages used by particular messaging applications such as, e.g., WhatsApp™, or any other type of message. Message type to be used in a particular attack may be selected by e.g. aserver106 using a simulatedphishing campaign manager250. The messages may be generated in any appropriate manner, e.g. by running an instance of an application that generates the desired message type, such as running e.g. a Gmail™ application, Microsoft Outlook™, WhatsApp™, a text messaging application, or any other appropriate application. The messages may be generated by running a messaging application on e.g. avirtual machine256, or may simply be run on an operating system of the server206, or may be run in any other appropriate environment. The messages may be generated to be formatted consistent with specific messaging platforms, for example Outlook365, Outlook Web Access (OWA), Webmail, iOS, Gmail client, and so on.
• In some embodiments, the simulated phishing email generator254 can be configured to generate messages having the ability to traverse users who interact with the messages to a specific landing page.
• In some embodiments, the simulated phishing email generator254 can be configured to generate a simulated phishing email. The email can appear to be delivered from a trusted email address, such as the email address of an executive of the company at which the target is employed. In addition, the email can have a “Subject:” field that is intended to cause the user to take an action, such as initiating a wire transfer. In some embodiments, the simulated phishing email generator254 can generate one or more simulated phishing emails which are stored in the simulatedphishing emails storage244. In some embodiments, the simulated phishing email generator254 can generate multiple instances of the email which may be delivered to multiple users selected from theusers storage241, such as a subset of all of the employees of the company. In some embodiments, the simulated phishing email generator254 can generate multiple instances of the email which may be delivered to a user group which is stored in theuser groups storage242. For example, theserver106 can select any number of employees who should be targeted by a simulated attack, can create a user group and store this user group in theuser groups storage242. The simulated phishing email generator254 can retrieve this information from theuser groups storage242 and can generate a set of emails similar to the email, each addressed to a respective target identified in the information stored in thememory122. That is, the simulated phishing email generator254 can generate the emails such that the “From:” and “Subject:” fields of each email are identical, while the “To:” field is adjusted according to the desired targets.
• Theevent tracker234 detects and keeps track of events in connection with users associated with simulated phishing campaigns. An event may be any type of activity, interaction, behavior, notification, alert or communication that may occur by or in association with a user and/or a simulated phishing campaign. In one embodiment, an event comprises a number of times a user interacts with a simulated phishing email. In another embodiment, an event comprises a number of courses of the electronically tracked remediation training the user has completed since a last time the user interacted with a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, an event comprises a number of simulated phishing campaigns run since a last time the user interacted with a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, an event comprises the amount of time since the last time the user interacted with a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, an event comprises the amount of time since the last time the user completed a course of the electronically tracked remediation training.
• The usergroup management function212 comprises a usergroup management application214 that generally manages the adding of a user to a user group. For some embodiments, the usergroup management application214 also manages the removal of a user from a user group. In one embodiment, the usergroup management application214 manages the adding of a user of one user group to another user group responsive to a user interacting with a simulated phishing email. In a further embodiment, the usergroup management application214 also manages the removing of the user from the one user group when the user is added to the other user group responsive to the user interacting with the simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the usergroup management application214 manages the adding of a user of one user group to another user group responsive to a user completing electronically tracked remediation training. In a further embodiment, the usergroup management application214 also manages the removing of the same user from the one user group when the user is added to another user group responsive to the user completing electronically tracked remediation training. In one embodiment, the usergroup management application214 manages the adding of a user of one user group to another user group responsive to an event related to the simulated phishing campaign. In a further embodiment, the usergroup management application214 also manages the removing of the same user from the one user group when the user is added to another user group responsive to the event related to the simulated phishing campaign.
• The usergroup management function212 also comprises a phishing emailuser interaction counter216 that counts, tracks, and/or manages a number of interactions of users with simulated phishing emails. In one embodiment, the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 keeps track of how many times a given user interacts with a given simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 keeps track of how many times a given user interacts with any simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 keeps track of the amount of time between instances when a given user interacts with a specific simulated phishing email, or with any simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 keeps track of how many times users in a given user group interact with a specific simulated phi shing email. In one embodiment, the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 keeps track of the way and the number of times in which a given user interacts with a simulated phishing email, for example, the number of times that a given user clicks on a link in a simulated phishing email, or the number of times that a given user replies or forwards a simulated phishing email.
• The phishingemail interaction tracker235 detects and keeps track of user interactions with simulated phishing emails by using the phishing emailuser interaction counter216. In some embodiments, the phishingemail interaction tracker235 receives indications from the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 any time a user interacts with a simulated phishing email. For example, the phishingemail interaction tracker235 uses the phishing emailuser interaction counter216 to keep track of the user interactions which may be counted and stored in a database. In one embodiment, the phishingemail interaction tracker235 detects and keeps track of when the user clicks a link in a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the phishingemail interaction tracker235 detects and keeps track of when the user replies to a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the phishingemail interaction tracker235 detects and keeps track of when the user forwards a simulated phishing email.
• The usergroup management function212 also comprises a user remediationtraining completion counter218 that counts, tracks, and/or manages the taking and completion of remediation training and courses. In one embodiment, the user remediationtraining completion counter218 keeps track of the number of courses of electronically tracked user remediation training a user has completed. In one embodiment, the user remediationtraining completion counter218 keeps track of whether a user has completed specific user remediation training. In one embodiment, the user remediationtraining completion counter218 keeps track of whether the user has completed a minimum or specific subset of the electronically tracked remediation training. In one embodiment, the user remediationtraining completion counter218 keeps track of the duration of time that the user spends on electronically tracked remediation training. In one embodiment, the user remediationtraining completion counter218 keeps track of the total amount of time elapsed until the user has completed the electronically tracked remediation training.
• Theremediation training tracker236 detects and keeps track of any electronically tracked remediation training that is assigned to a user by using the user remediationtraining completion counter218. In some embodiments, theremediation training tracker236 receives indications from the user remediationtraining completion counter218 when a user has completed remediation training. For example, theremediation training tracker236 uses the user remediationtraining completion counter218 to keep track of any electronically tracked remediation training that is assigned to the user which may be counted and stored in a database. In one embodiment, theremediation training tracker236 keeps track of one or more courses that comprise the electronically tracked remediation training. In one embodiment, theremediation training tracker236 keeps track of one or more live, or in person, training that is assigned to a user. In one embodiment, theremediation training tracker236 keeps track of mandatory training and non-mandatory training. In one embodiment, theremediation training tracker236 keeps track of the amount of time that the user spends completing remediation training. In one embodiment, theremediation training tracker236 keeps track of how many courses of the electronically tracked remediation training the user completes in a given time period.
• The user group selector238 selects a user group for a simulated phishing campaign. Each user group may include a list or collection of one or more users identified by a user name or user identifier. The user group select may select a user group to which to add a user and for some embodiments, delete or remove a user based on the user's interactions with a simulated phishing campaign, training, events, etc. For example, the user group selector238 can use a processor to select a group in one or more storage modules (e.g.,users storage241 and user groups storage242) in which to add and for some embodiments, delete or remove the user within the one more storage modules. In one embodiment, the user group selector238 selects a user group to add users to if they interact with a simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, the user group selector238 selects a user group to add users to if they interacted with a simulated phishing email and then subsequently completed the electronically tracked remediation training. In one embodiment, the simulated phishing campaign manager utilizes the user group selector238 to select predetermined groups to add users to in response to specific events.
• In an implementation, a simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may be e.g., another name for a system administrator, such as a security manager, a third party security consultant, a risk assessor, or any other party that uses the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 installed on a server. Theserver106 may wish to direct a simulated phishing attack by interacting with the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 installed on the server. The simulatedphishing campaign manager212 may be, for example, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile device, or any other suitable computing device. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may be e.g., an application on a device that allows for a user of the device to interact with theserver106 for e.g. purposes of creating, configuring, tailoring and/or executing a simulated phishing attack and/or viewing and/or processing and/or analyzing the results of a phishing attack.
• In an implementation, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250, when executed, causes a graphical user interface to be displayed to theserver106. In other embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 allows for user input through a non-graphical user interface, such as a user interface that accepts text or vocal input without displaying an interactive image. A graphical user interface may be displayed on a screen of a mobile phone, or a monitor connected to a desktop or laptop computer, or may be displayed on any other display. The user may interact with e.g. the graphical user interface on the device by typing, clicking a mouse, tapping, speaking, or any other method of interacting with a user interface. The graphical user interface on the device may be a web-based user interface provided by a web browser (e.g. GOOGLE CHROME, Microsoft INTERNET EXPLORER, or Mozilla Firefox provided by Mozilla Foundation of Mountain View, Calif.), or may be an application installed on a user device capable of opening a network connection to simulatedphishing campaign manager250, or may be any other type of interface.
• In an implementation, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 and/orserver106 may make choices concerning how a simulated phishing attack is to be carried out. For example, a graphical user interface run by the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may be displayed to theserver106. A user via theserver106 may input parameters for the attack that affect how it will be carried out. For example, via the server106 a user may make choices as to which users to include as potential targets in the attack, the method of determining which users are to be selected as targets of the attack, the timing of various aspects of the attack, whether to use an attack template that includes values for one or a plurality of failure indicators, how responses from targeted users should be uniquely identified, and other choices. These choices may be made by selecting options displayed on a graphical user interface from dropdown menus, being presented with choices through a simulated attack wizard, or in any other appropriate manner.
• In an implementation, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may allow theserver106, such as via application programming interfaces (APIs), to access and/or change settings of an account maintained with any party involved with the attack, such as, for example, a third party security service provider, or may allow the usergroup management function212 to access and/or change settings of an account maintained with a third party security service provider, such as one that e.g. manages an exploit server, view bills and/or make payments to a third party security service provider, to perform these functions with other third parties involved in the attack, or provide any other functions that would be appropriate for facilitating communications between theserver106 and any other parties involved in the attack.
• Thesystem200 includes also theclient102. A client may be a target of any simulated phishing attack. For example, the client may be an employee, member, or independent contractor working for an organization that is performing a security checkup or conducts ongoing simulated phishing attacks to maintain security. Theclient102 may be any device used by the client. The client need not own the device for it to be considered aclient device102. Theclient102 may be any computing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop, a mobile device, or any other computing device. In some embodiments, theclient102 may be a server or set of servers accessed by the client. For example, the client may be the employee or a member of an organization. The client may access a server that is e.g. owned or managed or otherwise associated with the organization. Such a server may be aclient102.
• In some embodiments, theclient102 may further include auser interface266 such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen, or any other appropriate user interface. This may be a user interface that is e.g. connected directly to aclient102, such as, for example, a keyboard connected to a mobile device, or may be connected indirectly to aclient102, such as, for example, a user interface of a client device used to access aserver client102. Theclient102 may include adisplay268, such as a screen, a monitor connected to the device in any manner, or any other appropriate display.
• In an implementation, theclient102 may include amessaging application270. Themessaging application270 may be any application capable of viewing, editing, and/or sending messages. For example, themessaging application270 may be an instance of an application that allows viewing of a desired message type, such as any web browser, a Gmail™ application, Microsoft Outlook™, WhatsApp™, a text messaging application, or any other appropriate application. In some embodiments, themessaging application270 can be configured to display simulated phishing attack emails. Furthermore, themessaging application270 can be configured to allow the target to generate reply messages or forwarded messages in response to the messages displayed by themessaging application270.
• In some embodiments, theclient102 may include acommunications module264. This may be a library, application programming interface (API), set of scripts, or any other code that may facilitate communications between theclient102 and any of theserver106, a third party server, or any other server. In some embodiments, thecommunications module264 determines when to transmit information from theclient102 to external servers via anetwork104. In some embodiments, the information transmitted by thecommunications module264 may correspond to a message, such as an email, generated by themessaging application270.
• In some embodiments, theserver106 includes a simulatedphishing campaign manager250. This simulatedphishing campaign manager250 analyzes which phishing email templates are most effective in generating user failures when the template is used in a simulated phishing attack. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 additionally determines what the most common failure types are for a given template. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may perform additional analysis across many different templates used to determine which failure indicators lead to the highest rate of failures.
• For example, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may include data collected from targets, records of failures such as a listing of which targets replied to a simulated phishing email, systemic or other security measures in place during the simulated phishing attacks, time or date logs, user identifiers, data detailing the results or analysis of attack results including data that indicates associations between attack results, and any other appropriate data. Theserver106 may view, save, share, print, or perform any other appropriate action with the attack results. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may perform analysis on the attack results, possibly upon request of theserver106. For example, this analysis may include determining which users are a security risk based on having a number of failures above a predetermined threshold, whether certain security systems in place are effective by e.g. correlating the presence of such security systems with a lower than average incidence of failures. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may allow an attack manager to view, on a graphical user interface run by theattack management application214, such as for example a timeline of overall failure rates, which may be useful in helping to determine whether a security policy that was instituted at a particular time was effective in improving security.
• In some embodiments, reply emails sent from the client to theserver106 can be processed by the simulatedphishing campaign manager250. For example, simulatedphishing campaign manager250 can be configured to process reply emails received from one or more target clients260 to determine the identities of the targets who sent the reply emails. In some embodiments, the identities of the targets may be determined based in part on the unique identifiers included within each reply email received by theserver106.
• Thesystem200 may include anetwork104. Thenetwork104 may be any type and/or form of network. The geographical scope of thenetwork104 may vary widely and thenetwork104 can be a body area network (BAN), a personal area network (PAN), a local-area network (LAN), e.g. Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. The topology of thenetwork104 may be of any form and may include, e.g., any of the following: point-to-point, bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree. Thenetwork104 may be an overlay network which is virtual and sits on top of one or more layers ofother networks104′. Thenetwork104 may be of any such network topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the art capable of supporting the operations described herein. Thenetwork104 may utilize different techniques and layers or stacks of protocols, including, e.g., the Ethernet protocol, the interne protocol suite (TCP/IP), the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technique, the SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking) protocol, or the SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) protocol. The TCP/IP internet protocol suite may include application layer, transport layer, internet layer (including, e.g., IPv6), or the link layer. Thenetwork104 may be a type of a broadcast network, a telecommunications network, a data communication network, or a computer network. Thenetwork104 connects theserver106 and aclient102. Theclient102 comprises acommunications module264, auser interface266, adisplay268, amessaging application270, and a memory such as any embodiments ofmemory122 described herein or any type and form of storage, such as a database or file system) Theclient102 receives the email sent by theserver106 based upon the campaign created and executed by the simulatedphishing campaign manager250. Theclient102 is able to receive the simulated phishing email via themessaging application270, display the received email for the user using thedisplay268, and is able to accept user interaction via theuser interface266 responsive to the displayed email. If the user interacts with the simulated phishing email, the client traverses to a landing page used by the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 in the phishing campaign.
• Referring toFIG. 3A in a general overview,FIG. 3A depicts an implementation of amethod300 for adding users to user groups. In a brief overview, themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a first user group for which to communicate simulated phishing emails of a simulated phishing email campaign (step310). Themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a second user group for which to add those users that interact with a simulated phishing email of a simulated phishing email campaign (step320). The method can include receiving a first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email (step330). The method can include, responsive to the first indication, automatically adding the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group (step340). The method can include receiving a second indication that the user completed remediation training (step350). The method can include, responsive to the second indication, adding the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group (step360).
• In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may receive the selection of the first user group atstep310 and the selection of the second user group atstep320 via any type of interface, for example a graphical user interface (GUI), and application program interface (API), or a command line interface (CLI). The interface may be menu driven, or form based, or may be based on natural language processing or may be gesture driven. The first user group may be an existing user group, or the system administrator may create a new user group from scratch. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 may receive one user group or may receive more than one user group to receive the simulated phishing emails of the simulated phishing campaign. In one embodiment, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 receives a user group by enabling the creation of a custom user group. For example, one user group can be designated as holding or otherwise storing users selected to receive a simulated phishing email. In another example, a user group can be designated as holding or otherwise storing users that interacted with a simulated phishing email (e.g., by clicking on a link in the email). In another example, a user group can be designated as holding or otherwise storing users that did not interact with a simulated phishing email (e.g., did not click on a link in email). Other examples of group designations may be appreciated by one of skill in the art.
• In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 receives a first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email atstep330 through the use of the phishingemail interaction tracker235 receiving indications from the phishing emailuser interaction counter216.
• In some embodiments, at step340, responsive to receiving the first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 automatically adds the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 automatically adds the user to user groups. In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 also automatically removes the user from user groups.
• In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 receives a second indication that the user completed remediation training atstep350 through the use of theremediation training tracker236 receiving indications from the user remediationtraining completion counter218.
• In some embodiments, atstep360, responsive to receiving the second indication that the user completed remediation training, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 automatically adds the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) and to a third user group. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 automatically adds the user to user groups. In some embodiments, the simulatedphishing campaign manager250 also automatically removes the user from user groups.
• FIG. 3B depicts one embodiment of an implementation of amethod300 for adding the user to user groups. In a brief overview, themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a first user group for which to communicate simulated phishing emails of a simulated phishing email campaign (step310). Themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a second user group for which to add those users that interact with a simulated phishing email of a simulated phishing email campaign (step320). The method can include receiving a first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email (step330). The method can include tracking the number of times the user has interacted with simulated phishing emails (step332). The method can include, responsive to the number of times the user has interacted with simulated phishing emails reaching a predetermined threshold, automatically adding the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group (step342). The method can include receiving a second indication that the user completed remediation training (step350). The method can include, responsive to the second indication, adding the user, who is a member of the second user group, back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group (step360).
• In some embodiments, at step332, the system tracks the total number of times ever that a given user has interacted with a simulated phishing email. In some embodiments, the system tracks the number of times that a given user has interacted with a simulated phishing email since the start of a specific simulated phishing campaign. In one embodiment, the system resets the count when the user completes remediation training related to simulated phishing emails. In one embodiment, the system administrator may manually reset the count of the number of times that a given user has interacted with a simulated phishing email.
• In some embodiments, atstep342, the predetermined threshold is specific to the first user group. In some embodiments, the predetermined threshold is specific to a given user. In some embodiments, the threshold is predetermined at the start of the simulated phishing campaign. In some embodiments, there is a unique threshold for different types of user interactions with the simulated phishing email. In one embodiment, there is a unique predetermined threshold for the number of times the user interacted with the simulated phishing email by clicking on a link in the email. In one embodiment, there is a unique and predetermined threshold for the number of times the user interacted with the simulated phishing email by replying to the simulated phishing email.
• Referring toFIG. 3C in a general overview,FIG. 3C depicts an implementation of amethod300 for adding a user to user groups. In a brief overview, themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a first user group for which to communicate simulated phishing emails of a simulated phishing email campaign (step310). Themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a second user group for which to add those users that interact with a simulated phishing email of a simulated phishing email campaign (step320). The method can include receiving a first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email (step330). The method can include, responsive to the first indication, automatically adding the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group (step340). The method can include tracking the number of courses of electronically tracked remediation training the user has completed (step344). The method can include receiving a second indication that the user completed remediation training (step350). The method can include, responsive to the second indication, automatically adding the user, who is a member of the second user group, to a predetermined user group corresponding to one or more courses of the number of courses the user has completed (step362).
• In some embodiments, atstep344, tracking the number of courses of electronically tracked remediation training the user has completed through the use of theremediation training tracker236 receiving indications from the user remediationtraining completion counter218.
• Referring toFIG. 3D in a general overview,FIG. 3D depicts an implementation of amethod300 for adding a user to user groups. In a brief overview, themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a first user group for which to communicate simulated phishing emails of a simulated phishing email campaign (step310). Themethod300 can include receiving a selection of a second user group for which to add those users that interact with a simulated phishing email of a simulated phishing email campaign (step320). The method can include receiving a first indication that a user of the first user group interacted with a simulated phishing email (step330). The method can include, responsive to the first indication, automatically adding the user, who is a member of the first user group, to the second user group (step340). The method can include receiving a second indication that the user completed remediation training (step350).
• FIG. 3D illustrates an embodiment where added users may be removed from one user group but added users remain members of a different user group. For example, the method can include, responsive to the second indication, keeping the user in the second user group while adding the user to either the first user group (where the user was removed from the first user group) or a third user group (step354).
• In some embodiments, atstep354, responsive to the second indication, the user remains a member of the second user group while the user is added back to the first user group (for embodiments where the user was removed from the first user group) or to a third user group through the use of the simulatedphishing campaign manager250. The simulatedphishing campaign manager250 adds users to user groups and for some embodiments, removes users from user groups.
• C. Systems and Methods of Using Smart Groups in Simulated Phishing and Training Campaigns.
• Components and/or parts of the systems and methods for using smart groups of the present solution include but is not limited to the following:
• Definition of criteria when a smart group is established.
• Current processes involve the creation of a static group and then the addition of users to that static group, not the creation of a group with criteria specific to that group.
• Creation of membership of a smart group from entire user population when the smart group is needed for some purpose
• Current processes have users added to static groups either manually by an administrator, or through a workflow process. Accurate membership in a static group is therefore dependent on having accurate workflows for every possible permutation of situations, or by having someone manually check and correct static groups prior to their use. By basing a group's membership on criteria and only checking which users meet the criteria right before the group is to be used, it ensures that the users on which an action is performed (e.g. training campaign, phishing campaign, report, etc.) are the correct users at the time the action is performed.
• No storing of a membership list for a smart group
• Membership lists are only created when they are going to be used, and they are not stored as static group membership lists need to be. If an administrator needs to know who is in a smart group, the administrator can run a query which essentially recreates the smart group in the moment, rather than drawing upon a stored list. This ensures that the membership list is always current and not stale.
• Ability to use a smart group for any purpose where a list of users is needed
• Previously, groups created using criteria based queries were used for reporting purposes only, whereas with this feature, a smart group or criteria based group can be dynamically created for any purpose where a list of users with a common attribute would be needed.
• Smart Group Process
• The first step in the process is creation of a smart group (before campaign, before reporting, etc.). For example, the first thing you would say is “I want a smart group consisting of all users that have never been trained” (another ex. smart group consisting of “users who haven't been phished in last 5 months”). This would be a valid criterion that an administrator inputs which would create the smart group. Then, the administrator creates a training campaign and directs the system (via a user interface) to use the members of the smart group (previously created) for the training campaign. Before the training campaign starts, the system compiles a list of users that meet the smart group's criteria (e.g., “users who have never been trained”) at this specific moment in time and then adds these users to the training campaign. At this point in time, these added users are considered members of the smart group. In this specific example, the moment that the users have completed training, they would no longer be a member of the smart group since the smart group membership only includes “users who have never been trained”. Thus, the smart group's membership is super dynamic, and the instantaneous membership changes as events take place.
• Smart Group Summary
• A smart group works in every location where a group is normally used within a console. The smart group can also be referred to as a query based group or a dynamic group.
• For example, the smart group is used for purposes of creating a training/phishing campaign. This can include setting up whom to run a report against and looking at users that are a member of the smart group.
• Users are not put into a smart group or taken out of the smart group. For example, specific user A cannot be manually added to a smart group through a workflow (defeats the whole purpose of smart groups). User A can only be part of the smart group if user A meets the criteria.
• The smart group is set up based on criteria associated with the smart group (e.g., it is a collection of users that share an attribute at any given point of time). The system will then determine the membership of the smart group at any point of time when the system needs to perform an action using the smart group. For example, after creating the smart group, if you create a training campaign for the smart group, the first thing that would happen is that the system would interrogate the entire population of users and update the membership of the smart group for the purposes of the training campaign. Triggers for determining membership of a smart group can include: an administrator logs in and asks for users, at the start of a campaign, or for creating a report, etc. The system does not store a list of users who meet criteria. The system dynamically creates the membership list of users only when it needs to know.
• Advantages and Unique Results
• The smart group is never out of date and there is no need for an administrator to keep the smart group up-to-date. This simplifies processing since system does not have to store data about users for each smart group. Also, the administrator does not need to be notified when a user's attributes change and the system does not need to update objects with this information which saves expense and time. The system is accurate because it interrogates all users at time of execution.
• In contrast, for a classic static group, the system adds user A to the static group, and user A is a member of the static group until a workflow event takes the user out of the static group or an administrator takes the user out of the static group. With a smart group, a user does not retain a tag as a member of the smart group since membership is only in the context of a specific action. An administrator can learn membership of a smart group at an instant in time by creating a system query. This is what makes it an interesting feature: the smart group is entirely based upon criteria and when an administrator calls upon the smart group (e.g., interrogates all users), the membership is determined and it is current. The system only needs to know if a user is a member of the smart group if the system is about to use the smart group for some type of action.
• In one example, an administrator adds new users into a console and wants only these new added users to receive training. In this case, using the current static system, the administrator would need to create a new static group specifically for recently added users. With a smart group, the administrator can simply create a smart group automatically for the following criteria: “users that have been added to console in the last week and who have never received training . . . ”. The administrator can then immediately use the users pulled into smart group for training.
• Smart Group Setup and Creation
• When creating a smart group, the system saves two items: 1. criteria for the smart group and 2. a name for smart group (does not save user membership of smart group). The smart group membership can be different day to day thus there is no reason to save a list of users (i.e., criteria stays the same but users can change over time). The user list of smart group is only generated when it is needed for a specific purpose by system (e.g., campaign).
• Criteria for a smart group can be adjusted or modified by administrator after creation.
• Smart groups created for use with campaigns may have different criteria from smart groups created for use with reporting.
• Multiple criteria can be stacked together to create an advanced smart group (e.g., smart groups based on multiple criteria). For example, the system can string multiple criteria together (e.g., string “users who have not been trained” criteria with “users who have been phished in the past x months” criteria). Stacking may or could be limited to predetermined number of criteris, such as five (5) criteria (arbitrary number) or possibly raised to more criteria in the future.
• It is desirable in the future to add the ability to nest smart groups. Because of the complexity with nesting groups, this action is only currently done with traditional groups. For the purposes of the invention, the concept would be instead of just having criteria saying these people are a member of this group because of specific criteria or attributes, you could also say that any member of this group is also a member of the smart group. This nesting feature allows for the inclusion of another static group or another smart group (e.g., users that have not logged into the console ever before could be a smart group). The system could include members of an accounting group as a criterion. This would be the content of the smart group. The system could even consider it another criterion or other criteria. The other group included within the nest does not have to be criteria-based (e.g., static groups). This other static group still can be changed either through workflow or through the administrator making changes (e.g., users are moving in and out of groups throughout the day).
• Smart Group Criteria and Specific Examples:
• List of criteria or attributes can include:
• phish prone percentage for user compared to all users
• number of “click” times
• phished in XXX days, XXX weeks, or XXX months
• trained in XXX days, XXX weeks, or XXX months
• “clicks” tracked before and after training
• “clicks” tracked over a specific time period (e.g., XXX days, XXX weeks, XXX months)
• data entered over a specific time period (e.g., XXX days, XXX weeks, XXX months)
• replies over a specific time period (e.g., XXX days, XXX weeks, XXX months)
• Examples of smart groups created based on above criteria list can include:
• Users with a personal phish prone percentage greater than XXX (e.g., “worst 5% clickers”, “worst 10% clickers”)
• Users that have “clicked” more than XXX times in the past XXX months.
• Users that have or have not been phished in XXX months.
• Users that have or have not been trained in XXX months.
• Users that have or have not been trained in past XXX months.
• Users that have or have not “clicked” after finishing training.
• Users that have “never clicked” or “non-clickers” group (e.g., users who have not clicked in XXX days or XXX months or perhaps in last XXX campaigns).
• Users that have failed via XXXX (“click”, data entered, reply, etc. . . . ) in the past XXX months.
• Users that have “clicked” before training but not after training (this is a powerful “story telling group” but also probably one of the more difficult scenarios to shoot for)
• Implementation of Smart Group System
• When implemented, a smart group is setup with a name and a set of criteria (i.e., saved query). The smart group is entirely driven by this saved criteria for the smart group. This means that the smart group would not show up in “Add clickers to” portion of phishing, group management features of User Management, and training campaign group manipulation areas.
• It is desirable to have an indicator noting which group is a smart group when shown in a list of other groups. For example, the smart groups can be listed prior to or after the “normal” console static groups with a heading for each type of group.
• The way this system and process works will be by way of a user interface that allows administrators to set up or configure these smart groups. This interface can be a fully graphical user interface that includes e.g., an active directory (such as an SQL query text editor that allows selection from a table where name=, etc.).
• This system will be purely user interface (UI) based having drop down boxes (i.e., operators) so you can select provided criteria (e.g., “all users that have been phishing” or “all users who were not phished in the last 30 days”, “last 60 days”, or the administrator can enter a date/time for tracking criteria). There are other examples but the whole idea is that it is going to be implemented as drop down operators such that the administrator can press a plus (+) button and add criteria (e.g., add criteria, then add more criteria, etc.) in order to create the smart group.
• Other main components will be a database for storing data (before starting a campaign) and a phishing campaign manager. When it is time to create a campaign, it is the phishing campaign manager that looks up into a smart group selector (i.e., interrogates smart group). Then, right before the phishing campaign manager creates the campaign, it executes queries (based on smart group) to output a list of users that are members of the selected smart group. These users of the smart group will be phished into campaign—the campaign schedules emails to go out for each user at a certain time.
• Training functions the same way but uses a training manager instead of a campaign manager. The training manager is separate from the phishing manager. The training manager does queries (based on smart group) and then uses data from queries to determine which users are going to be trained.
• Reporting of Smart Groups after Campaign
• There may be instances where reporting of smart groups provides no users depending on criteria. For example, a smart group created based on the following criterion: “users who haven't been phishing in the last 5 months”. After this smart group is created and used for a campaign, trying to create a report using this same smart group would no longer include any users. For reporting, the criteria for the smart group can be changed or a new smart group may be created based on new criteria (e.g., “users who have been phished in the last few days/weeks/month”) rather than use the original smart group criteria that drove the campaign.
• In general, reporting is focused more on geographic locations, an overall health of how things are doing for a specific organization group or location and less concerned about groups being set up in console. There is a disconnect between user groups used by management to make sure people get their training and then reporting which follows a different set of requirements. For reporting, companies typically want to aggregate or group information by some other criteria that has nothing to do with why they were phished or trained (e.g., check to see if there are people that have slipped through the cracks, or people that are doing well, or people that are always failures). A company administrator could create dozens upon dozens of smart groups that have been started to meet their company training requirements and their company reporting requirements.
• It should be understood that the systems described above may provide multiple ones of any or each of those components and these components may be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments, on multiple machines in a distributed system. The systems and methods described above may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition, the systems and methods described above may be provided as one or more computer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles of manufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in one or more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memory devices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g., integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronic devices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM, floppy disk, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture may be accessible from a file server providing access to the computer-readable programs via a network transmission line, wireless transmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves, infrared signals, etc. The article of manufacture may be a flash memory card or a magnetic tape. The article of manufacture includes hardware logic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computer readable medium that is executed by a processor. In general, the computer-readable programs may be implemented in any programming language, such as LISP, PERL, C, C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte code language such as JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in one or more articles of manufacture as object code.
• While various embodiments of the methods and systems have been described, these embodiments are exemplary and in no way limit the scope of the described methods or systems. Those having skill in the relevant art can effect changes to form and details of the described methods and systems without departing from the broadest scope of the described methods and systems. Thus, the scope of the methods and systems described herein should not be limited by any of the exemplary embodiments and should be defined in accordance with the accompanying claims and their equivalents.

Claims (20)

What is claimed is:

1. A method for using a dynamically identified group of users by a campaign, the method comprising

(a) establishing, by a server, a group identified by an identifier and comprising criteria for identifying one or more users, the group configured to identify the one or more users matching the criteria dynamically at a time the group is executed;

(b) receiving, by the server, an indication to execute a campaign that identifies the group;

(c) performing, by the server responsive to the campaign, a query of a plurality of users that match the criteria of the group;

(d) adding, by the server, to the campaign the one or more users identified as a result of the query; and

(e) executing, by the server, the campaign for the one or more users.

2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (a) further comprises establishing the group with a plurality of criteria combined by a logical operator.

3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (b) further comprises receiving, by the server, a selection of a group from a plurality of groups for use with the campaign.

4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (b) further comprising receiving, by the server, the indication to start the campaign comprising one of a training campaign or a simulated phishing attack campaign.

5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (c) further comprising compiling a list of users as members of the group responsive to the query

6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (d) further comprises adding, by the server, the one or more users to this instance of execution of the campaign.

7. The method ofclaim 6, further comprising no longer associating the one or more users as members of the group upon completion of the campaign.

8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein (e) further comprises executing, by the server, the campaign with the one or more users identified by the group different from a previous execution of the same campaign.

9. The method ofclaim 1, receiving, by the server, a second indication to execute the campaign identifying the group and identifying via a second query a different one or more users for which to run the campaign.

10. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising establishing a plurality of groups in which in which a first group of the plurality of group is used to query the results of the group of the plurality of groups to identify the one or more users using criteria of the first group.

11. A system for using a dynamically identified group of users by a campaign, the system comprising:

a server comprising one or more processors, coupled to memory and configured to:

establish a group identified by an identifier and comprising criteria for identifying one or more users, the group configured to identify the one or more users matching the criteria dynamically at a time the group is executed;

receive an indication to execute a campaign that identifies the group;

perform, responsive to the campaign, a query of a plurality of users that match the criteria of the group;

add to the campaign the one or more users identified as a result of the query; and

execute the campaign for the one or more users.

12. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the group comprises a plurality of criteria combined by a logical operator.

13. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to receive a selection of a group from a plurality of groups for use with the campaign.

14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to receive the indication to start the campaign comprising one of a training campaign or a simulated phishing attack campaign.

15. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to compile a list of users as members of the group responsive to the query

16. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to add the one or more users to this instance of execution of the campaign.

17. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the one or more users are no longer associated as members of the group upon completion of the campaign.

18. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to execute the campaign with the one or more users identified by the group different from a previous execution of the same campaign.

19. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to receive a second indication to execute the campaign identifying the group and identifying via a second query a different one or more users for which to run the campaign.

20. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the server is further configured to establish a plurality of groups in which a first group of the plurality of group is used to query the results of the group of the plurality of groups to identify the one or more users using criteria of the first group.

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