Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management: Uniquely Reducing Cyber Risks Across Your Ecosystem

In 2025, identity theft is the top cybersecurity concern, while data breaches and cyber extortion continue to rise. Despite these threats, 13% of organizations still lack a formal incident-response plan, and nearly 40% struggle with cybersecurity skill shortages (World Economic Forum).

With attackers increasingly exploiting human vulnerabilities across employees, contractors, and supply-chain partners, businesses can no longer focus only on internal security. A single weak link—whether an untrained employee, an unaware contractor, or a vulnerable vendor—can open the door to costly cyberattacks. To stay ahead, organizations must extend security awareness and response capabilities across their entire ecosystem.

In this blog, we’ll explore how Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management (XHRM) platform helps mitigate these risks with AI-driven phishing simulations, adaptive security awareness training, and automated response.

1. Employees

Employees are the first line of defense against cyber threats, but they are also the primary targets for attacks. Without proper awareness and training, they can unknowingly click malicious links, share sensitive data, or fall for social engineering scams. Strengthening employee cybersecurity awareness is essential to reducing risk.

Challenges

Cybercriminals constantly adapt their tactics to exploit human weaknesses. Employees face several key threats:

• Phishing & Social Engineering – Attackers use emails, calls, and fake websites to trick employees into revealing sensitive information or downloading malware.
• Lack of Awareness – Without ongoing security training, employees may not recognize sophisticated cyber threats, increasing the risk of breaches.
• Privilege Misuse – Employees with excessive access to critical systems can unintentionally or maliciously cause data leaks or insider threats.

Effective cybersecurity starts with empowering employees to recognize and respond to these threats before they lead to costly incidents.

How Keepnet Helps

To protect employees from cyber threats, Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management (XHRM) platform provides a multi-layered approach to awareness, training, and response:

• AI-Powered Phishing Simulations – Employees learn to identify and report phishing emails through real-world attack simulations that improve detection skills.
• Adaptive Training Modules – Personalized, AI-driven e-learning delivers targeted training based on employee performance, ensuring continuous improvement.
• Security Culture Programs – Gamification, leadership engagement, and company-wide initiatives reinforce positive security behaviors, making cybersecurity a shared responsibility.

By combining phishing simulations, cyber security awareness training, and security culture-building, Keepnet helps organizations reduce human-driven cyber risks and build a resilient security-first workforce.

2. Contractors

Contractors play a critical role in many organizations but often operate outside standard security controls, making them a potential weak link. Without proper oversight, contractors can unknowingly expose sensitive data or become targets for cyberattacks. Ensuring they follow the same security protocols as full-time employees is essential.

Challenges

Contractors present unique security challenges that require specialized oversight and training. Some of the most common risks include:

• Limited Oversight – Contractors may work remotely or follow different workflows, making policy enforcement difficult.
• Varying Levels of Training – Unlike employees, contractors often lack standardized security training, increasing the risk of human error.
• Access to Sensitive Systems – Many contractors need access to confidential data or business-critical systems, creating potential security gaps.

How Keepnet Helps

To reduce the security risks associated with contractors, Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management platform provides tools to train, monitor, and enforce security best practices across external workers.

• Centralized Training Portal – Provides contractors with the same phishing simulations and security awareness training as employees, ensuring a consistent security culture.
• Automated Policy Enforcement – Tracks which contractors have completed mandatory training and automatically follows up with those who have not.
• User Segmentation & Monitoring – Integrates with Identity & Access Management (IAM) systems to monitor contractor activities, detect anomalies, and reduce insider threats.

By standardizing security awareness, enforcing compliance, and monitoring risk, Keepnet helps organizations secure their contractor ecosystem and prevent third-party cyber threats.

3. Supply Chain Partners

Supply chain partners extend your business reach but also increase cybersecurity risks. A single weak link—whether a vendor, supplier, or service provider—can expose your entire network to attacks. Ensuring consistent security standards across all partners is essential to preventing breaches.

Challenges

Managing cybersecurity across a complex supply chain presents several key challenges:

• Shared Vulnerabilities – If a supplier or partner is breached, attackers can use their access to infiltrate your systems.
• Fragmented Security Standards – Each partner may have different security policies, making it difficult to enforce consistent protection.
• Complex Compliance Requirements – Global supply chains must navigate multiple regulations like GDPR and CCPA, increasing compliance complexity.

How Keepnet Helps

To mitigate supply chain risks, Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management platform provides training, testing, and compliance monitoring to strengthen security across partner networks.

• Extended Training & Awareness Programs – Supply chain partners gain access to collaborative security training and joint workshops, promoting shared best practices.
• Phishing Simulations & Risk Assessments – Keepnet Human Risk Management Platform runs phishing simulations and risk assessments to identify security gaps before they become threats.
• Continuous Compliance Monitoring – Tracks security awareness training and compliance status across all partners, ensuring alignment with data protection regulations.

Additionally, Keepnet’s Phishing Reporter enables partners to quickly report suspicious emails, feeding into automated phishing analysis workflows to detect and neutralize threats.

To learn more about managing supply chain cyber risks related to human, please visit our solution page.

By extending security awareness, phishing defense, and compliance tracking across the entire supply chain, Keepnet helps organizations proactively prevent breaches before they escalate.

4. Other External Stakeholders

Beyond employees, contractors, and supply-chain partners, organizations must also consider additional external stakeholders who can be targeted by cybercriminals. Customers, vendors, and service providers all interact with your business and, if unprotected, can become entry points for attacks.

Customers & End Users

Cybercriminals often impersonate brands to steal customer credentials, commit fraud, and damage company reputations. Without proactive security measures, these attacks can erode customer trust.

Challenges:

• Phishing & Credential Theft – Attackers use fake emails, SMS, and websites to trick customers into revealing sensitive information.
• Trust & Reputation Risks – A security breach that affects customers can permanently damage a company’s brand.

How Keepnet Helps

To protect customers from phishing attacks and prevent brand impersonation, Keepnet provides advanced awareness, detection, and response solutions that ensure a rapid and effective defense against external threats.

• Customer-Facing Awareness Campaigns – Provides security newsletters, infographics, and phishing alerts to educate customers on common scams and prevent fraud.
• Automated Phishing Incident Response – Using Keepnet’s Incident Responder, businesses can identify and neutralize phishing threats in minutes with AI-driven analysis, seamless integration with Office 365, Google Workspace, and SOAR solutions, and real-time threat intelligence.

By combining education, automated detection, and incident response, Keepnet helps organizations protect customers, prevent fraud, and strengthen overall cybersecurity resilience.

Vendors and service providers often have direct access to company systems and sensitive data, making them a critical part of an organization's cybersecurity strategy. A single weak vendor can expose an entire network to cyber threats, so ensuring they follow strong security practices is essential.

Challenges

Managing third-party security risks comes with several key challenges:

• Inconsistent Security Postures – Vendors have different levels of cybersecurity maturity, creating potential security gaps.
• Data-Sharing Risks – Providing vendors with system access or sensitive data increases the risk of compromise.

How Keepnet Helps

To strengthen third-party security, Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management platform provides tools to assess vendor security and enable real-time threat collaboration.

• Vendor Risk Assessments – Evaluates vendor security awareness through phishing simulations to identify weak points before they are exploited.
• Threat Sharing Communities – Keepnet’s Threat Sharing Platform enables organizations to exchange real-time threat intelligence with trusted communities, collaborate on new cyber threats, and create automated workflows for faster detection and response.

By assessing vendor security and leveraging real-time threat intelligence, Keepnet helps organizations mitigate third-party risks and prevent supply chain attacks before they escalate.

Key Features of Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management Platform

Keepnet’s XHRM platform strengthens cybersecurity by reducing human-driven risks through AI-powered phishing simulations, adaptive training, and automated threat response.

• AI-Driven Phishing Simulations – Test employees with realistic phishing attacks (email, SMS, voice, QR, MFA) to improve awareness and identify high-risk users.
• Adaptive Security Awareness Training – Deliver personalized training based on role, behavior, and risk level, ensuring employees get targeted security education.
• Incident Responder– Detect and remove phishing emails instantly using AI-powered tools, reducing exposure time and preventing breaches.
• Security Culture Programs – Promote a security-first mindset using gamification, leadership support, and engagement metrics.
• Outcome-Driven Metrics & Reporting – Gain real-time insights into user behavior and risks. Generates customizable reports for CISOs, IT Managers, and Boards, providing actionable security metrics in PDF format to track progress and improve defenses.

Why Choose Keepnet’s XHRM?

Unlike traditional security training, Keepnet XHRM integrates AI-driven phishing tests, behavioral science, and real-time interventions into one seamless platform, ensuring stronger security awareness and resilience.

Check out the Keepnet Human Risk Management Platform to strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity and reduce human-driven risks.