Someone clicks a link, realizes something feels wrong, and then hesitates. Do they tell IT now, or hope nothing happened? That pause is a problem a training program should help solve. The person who was tricked needs a clear next step, not a public lesson in embarrassment.
Phishing training should help people recognize suspicious requests and report them quickly. At RIKR, we want to get past the shame that comes with being fooled so we can secure the situation. An employee reporting a mistake has given the response team something useful: a chance to act sooner.
Train for the messages your team actually receives
Not every attack arrives as a badly written email. A request can appear in a text, a collaboration app, or an existing conversation. A familiar name and professional wording are not proof that the request is legitimate. Teach people to notice the action being requested: share a code, open a new sign-in page, change a bank account, or bypass a normal approval.
Use examples relevant to your working day. Accounting should rehearse payment changes. Managers should recognize impersonated executive requests. New employees need to know how real internal help is requested. NIST’s phishing resources emphasize recognizing and reporting suspicious communication; your training should turn that into an ordinary workplace habit.
Source: NIST small business phishing resources
Give people a reporting route they will remember
A process buried in a policy folder will not help much during a confusing moment. Explain where to report a message, what details to include, and what to do if a link was opened or a password was entered. Tell employees not to keep interacting with the sender while they wait. Make it clear that reporting after a click is still worth doing.
- Provide an approved reporting button or a familiar way to reach IT.
- Explain that suspicious messages should not be forwarded casually around the company.
- Ask whether the employee entered credentials, approved a prompt, downloaded a file, or sent information.
- Keep the response calm and share useful lessons without naming and shaming the person.
Use simulations to teach, not to catch people out
Simulated phishing can show which situations need more explanation. A click rate alone misses a lot. Did anyone report the message? How long did it take? Could the reporting route actually reach the right person? Follow a simulation with a short explanation that employees can apply to their next real message.
RIKR provides security awareness training through Huntress, including simulated phishing and engaging content. Training belongs alongside filtering and identity protection. In our cybersecurity offering, IRONSCALES adds AI-assisted and community-informed email protection. Those layers have different jobs; neither is a reason to expect employees to spot every attack.
Know what happens after a real report
A report may require account investigation, session revocation, device review, or payment verification. The right response depends on what happened. Avoid asking a worried employee to decide whether something qualifies as a serious incident before they can get help. Let the technical team make that assessment.
The goal is a team that notices, asks, and reports. That is more useful than a team that stays quiet because the last person who spoke up was blamed.
Related: preventing business email compromise and payment fraud
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Written by Joshua Price
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