Top 10 Phishing Awareness Best Practices

Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated and widespread in 2025, driven by AI-generated scams, automation, and deepfake impersonations that exploit human vulnerabilities. The statistics highlight the alarming rise in phishing threats:

• 80-95% of cyber-attacks start with phishing (Comcast Business Cybersecurity Threat Report), making phishing the most common initial attack vector.
• $4.88 million is the average cost of a phishing breach (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report), demonstrating the severe financial impact of phishing incidents.
• 4,151% increase in phishing attacks since ChatGPT’s release in 2022 (SlashNext State of Phishing Report), showing how AI-driven attacks are evolving at an unprecedented rate.

With phishing now the primary entry point for cybercriminals, organizations must prioritize phishing awareness, proactive training, and advanced security measures to prevent costly breaches and disruptions.

This guide outlines cutting-edge best practices to fortify individuals and organizations against modern phishing threats, emphasizing proactive strategies and psychological resilience.

2025 Top Phishing Awareness Best Practices

Organizations must adopt proactive phishing awareness best practices to strengthen their phishing awareness programs. Here are the most effective best practices to mitigate phishing risks, enhance employee vigilance, and improve overall cybersecurity resilience:

1. Adaptive Security Awareness Training: Beyond Basic Training

Move beyond annual seminars with microlearning modules and interactive simulations to adaptive security awareness training. Use real-time examples, like AI-generated voice scams (vishing) mimicking executives, to teach employees to question anomalies. Incorporate gamified training platforms where users identify phishing attempts in simulated environments, earning rewards for vigilance. For instance, a 2024 attack spoofed a CEO’s voice to authorize fraudulent transfers, bypassing traditional email filters.

2. Decentralized Authentication

While Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is critical, opt for phishing-resistant methods like FIDO2 security keys (e.g., YubiKey) over SMS-based codes, which are vulnerable to SIM-swapping. Highlight cases like the Twilio breach, where attackers intercepted SMS codes, to underscore the importance of hardware tokens.

3. Psychological Tactics Recognition

Phishing attacks often exploit human psychology, using urgency, authority, and curiosity to manipulate victims into clicking malicious links or sharing sensitive information. Training employees to recognize these tactics—such as urgent security warnings, fake emails from executives, or enticing offers—helps build resilience against deception.

Train teams to spot manipulation techniques:

• Urgency: "Your account expires in 24 hours!"
• Authority: Fake legal threats from "IT Departments."
• Curiosity: "Click here for a surprise bonus."

Role-playing exercises can help employees practice responding to high-pressure scenarios calmly.

4. Mobile-First Vigilance (Smishing & App Spoofing)

With 60% of phishing accessed via mobile, address SMS phishing (smishing) and malicious app clones. Encourage apps like Microsoft Authenticator for link scanning and advise checking sender IDs. For example, a 2024 scam mimicked banking apps through fake QR codes in texts.

5. Advanced URL & Phishing Email Analysis

Cybercriminals often disguise phishing emails and malicious URLs to appear legitimate, tricking users into divulging sensitive information. To combat these threats, employees must learn to analyze URLs and email headers carefully, identifying subtle signs of deception:

Teach nuanced checks:

• Hover over links to preview domains; watch for homograph attacks (e.g., "paypa1.com" using a numeral '1').
• Use browser extensions like Trend Micro Check to flag malicious sites.
• Scrutinize email headers for mismatched "Reply-To" addresses and lookalike domains (e.g., "amaz0n.net").

For more information, read our guide to learn how to analyze phishing emails in a step-by-step.

6. Zero-Trust Communication Protocols

Implement a zero trust policy where sensitive requests (e.g., wire transfers) require confirmation via a secondary channel. After a 2023 incident where a spoofed CFO email tricked an accountant, one firm mandated Slack video verification for financial transactions, preventing further breaches.

7. Threat Intelligence Sharing

Create threat intelligence sharing mechanisms like internal channels (e.g., Slack groups) for employees to report phishing attempts in real-time. Share anonymized examples company-wide to highlight emerging trends, like QR code phishing in LinkedIn messages.

8. AI-Powered Defense Layers

Deploy AI to detect anomalous email patterns. For example, AI can flag emails sent outside typical hours or containing unusual file types, catching threats traditional filters miss.

9. Secure Personal Ecosystems

Recognize that personal device breaches endanger corporate networks. Advocate for VPNs on public Wi-Fi and DNS filtering tools like Cisco Umbrella to block phishing sites across all devices. Encourage using password managers (e.g., Bitwarden) to avoid credential reuse.

10. Proactive Incident Response

Conduct quarterly attack and breach simulations where phishing leads to a mock ransomware attack. Test how teams isolate compromised accounts, revoke access, and communicate with stakeholders. Post-drill debriefs refine response plans, ensuring preparedness.

Best Practice for Phishing Awareness: Create a Security Culture

Phishing thrives on complacency. By fostering an environment where every request is scrutinized, and every employee feels responsible for collective security, organizations can turn human vulnerability into a strength. Stay ahead with adaptive security awareness training learning, adaptive technologies, and empathy-driven training that addresses why humans fall for scams—not just how. In the arms race against cybercriminals, perpetual vigilance is the ultimate defense.

Use Keepnet Extended Human Risk Management Platform for Phishing Awareness

Organizations need more than just technical defenses—a strong security behavior and culture program is essential for employees to adopt phishing awareness best practices.

A Security Behavior and Culture Program (SBCP) shifts cybersecurity from a compliance-driven task to an embedded mindset, ensuring employees make informed security decisions in real-time. By integrating behavioral training, adaptive phishing simulations, and continuous reinforcement, organizations can build a conscious security culture where phishing resilience becomes second nature.

Customer Success Story: Tiryaki Agro Foods’ Cybersecurity Challenges

Tiryaki Agro Foods, a leading agro-food processing company, faced persistent phishing attacks despite internal training. Employees continued to fall for scams, resulting in:

• Frequent security incidents, raising operational and reputational risks.
• Low employee engagement, as traditional training failed to change behaviors.
• Limited visibility into phishing vulnerabilities, making risk assessment difficult.

The Solution

By implementing Keepnet’s phishing simulations and behavior-based security awareness training, Tiryaki achieved:

• 93% increase in phishing email reporting.
• 82% reduction in employees clicking malicious links.
• A stronger security culture across the organization.

Read the full customer success story here.

Discover how Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management Platform helps organizations measure, manage, and strengthen human-centric cybersecurity defenses.

This blog post was updated on February 17, 2025.