ITS Welcomes WPI to KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Awareness

This message was emailed to students and faculty on 8/12/24 from Vijay Menta, Vice President and Chief Information Officer. The staff received it on 7/15/24.

Cybersecurity attacks, such as phishing and social engineering, pose a constant threat to your online safety and to WPI’s Information Technology infrastructure.  According to Higher Ed Dive, the average data breach in the education sector alone cost $3.7 million in 2023.  As recommended by WPI’s Board of Trustees, Information Technology Services (ITS) aims to strengthen the institution's information security efforts by implementing more robust phishing awareness assessments and education to help protect our community.  

This academic year, ITS will offer cybersecurity training to raise awareness about phishing and social engineering attacks. We are partnering with KnowBe4, a company that specializes in promoting cybersecurity awareness through online training and simulated phishing campaigns. The phishing campaigns send fake emails designed to gauge whether employees fall victim to phishing tactics or not. The campaign results will help ITS identify how our organization is likely to react when a real phishing attack occurs, and how to further promote best practices. 

We are excited to share the benefits of KnowBe4 with you, which can bolster both your work and personal online safety.  

• Please watch this 2- minute introduction video about KnowBe4’s security awareness training.  
• In the coming weeks, you will receive an email from KnowBe4 Cybersecurity Training (do-not-reply@training.knowbe4.com) inviting you to access the initial training, which is less than 20 minutes. The training is accessed with your WPI credentials through single sign-on. We encourage you to complete the training within 30 days to prepare for KnowBe4’s quarterly simulated phishing campaigns throughout the 2024-25 year.  

We hope that you will find KnowBe4 a useful new tool to further your ability to protect your data and identity and protect WPI as well! Thank you for your participation. 

Best regards, 

Vijay Menta, Vice President and Chief Information Officer 

LeeAnn LeClerc, Chief Information Security & Technology Officer