Phase 9: Educate and Improve

After a phishing incident has been identified, contained, and documented, it's essential to reflect on the event to:

• Prevent recurrence of similar attacks

• Raise user awareness

• Enhance detection and response mechanisms

• Feed lessons back into the security ecosystem

• Continuously improve playbooks, tooling, and training

This phase closes the loop between incident response and security maturity, and is essential because:

• 95% of cyber incidents involve human error—user education is essential

• Analysts can spot patterns in campaigns that help detect future attacks faster

• Lessons from real incidents help tune security controls

• Continuous feedback drives process improvement and reduces operational blind spots

Suggested steps to educate and improve future prevention, detection, response, and remediation measures include:

1. Conduct Targeted User Awareness and Training

   • Conduct a targeted awareness campaign if a phishing email reaches users or, worse, if someone interacts with it.

   • Highlight what the phishing email looked like and how to spot it in the future.

   • Reinforce key behaviors:

     • Don’t click unknown links or open suspicious attachments.

     • Always check sender details.

     • Report anything suspicious immediately.

   • Suggested training enhancements include:

     • Host quick sessions or webinars (15–30 minutes).

     • Share interactive phishing simulation results (if applicable).

     • Provide "what went wrong" breakdowns without blaming the user; This is a learning opportunity, not a disciplinary one.

2. Feed IOCs and Patterns into Detection Tools

   • Take everything learned from the incident and improve tooling and detection rules:

     • SIEM - Add search rules for sender domain, subject line, URLs, IPs

     • EDR/XDR - Add hash/IOC blocking, behavioral signatures

     • Email Security Gateway - Update filters, subject line keywords, domain blocklists

     • DNS/Proxy - Block known malicious domains/IPs involved in phishing

     • SOAR - Automate response playbooks based on verdicts from similar incidents

   • Goal - ensures that a similar attack next time will be detected earlier—or automatically blocked.

3. Update Internal Knowledge Base or Playbooks

   • Document and share:

     • The attack vector and tactics used (e.g., credential phishing via fake HR form)

     • The playbook adjustments made (e.g., “add step to check newly registered domains”)

     • The response timeline (what went well, what caused delays)

     • Any tuning recommendations for filtering or detection thresholds

   • The updated documentation can be used to:

     • Train new SOC analysts

     • Conduct team knowledge-sharing sessions

     • Inform tabletop exercises or red team simulations

4. Run a Follow-Up Phishing Simulation

   • If feasible, run a targeted phishing simulation a few weeks later to test:

     • Whether users apply the lessons learned

     • If detection and response times have improved

     • If automation rules trigger correctly

   • Simulations provide measurable data to validate that “education + improvements” are effective.

5. Review Metrics and KPIs

   • Post-incident, assess the security team’s performance using key metrics:

     • Time to Detect (TTD) - How long it took to discover the phishing email

     • Time to Contain (TTC) - How long it took to quarantine or block the threat

     • Click Rate - How many users interacted with the phishing message

     • False Positives - How many safe messages were flagged during detection

     • IOC Reuse - Whether indicators were already known but not blocked

   • Use these metrics in team retrospectives, compliance reports, or security maturity dashboards.

6. Collaborate and Share with Other Teams

   • Depending on the severity or novelty of the phishing attack:

     • Share your findings with IT, DevOps, Legal, HR, and Management.

     • Notify your MSSP or upstream provider if external infrastructure was abused.

     • Submit IOCs or campaign details to:

       • Threat intel sharing communities (e.g., MISP, ISACs)

       • Public databases like PhishTank, URLhaus, AbuseIPDB

       • Vendors whose brand was spoofed (e.g., Google, Microsoft, banks)

   • Sharing helps the wider cybersecurity community and builds your organization's reputation.

7. Update Incident Response and Escalation Procedures

   • Based on the challenges or bottlenecks during the incident:

     • Improve decision trees for phishing detection

     • Add auto-escalation rules to reduce manual triage

     • Refine response authority levels (e.g., “when to notify CISO or legal”)

   • The goal is to reduce friction and improve speed for the next incident.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Not informing users after a phishing incident (“sweeping it under the rug”)

• Skipping updates to detection systems (leaving gaps open)

• Treating post-incident improvement as optional

• Blaming users without providing guidance or training