Hosting Inaugural “Wisdom” User Conference

Ponemon Institute founder to present new findings on the cost of a data breach and economic impact of continuous security training

Wombat Security Technologies (Wombat) announced that the company will host its inaugural user community meeting, called “Wombat Wisdom,” on September 28-30.

Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute, will deliver the keynote address to present new findings from a new research report on the Cost of Phishing and Value of Employee Training, which found that employee training significantly reduces the financial consequences of phishing in the workplace.

The “Wombat Wisdom” event, appropriately named as a group of Wombats is called a “wisdom”, will feature presentations and an open discussion from a number of customers from companies in industries such as technology, energy, finance and consumer goods, among others.  Presentations will outline how these Wombat customers have put in place and measured the impact of innovative security training programs as a key component of their overall security posture.

Wombat will share the company’s latest innovations, including the recent launch of PhishAlarm, a one-click email reporting button. During the event, the company will also collect valuable feedback and insight to help guide the direction of future products and features.

“As the threat landscape continues to intensify and phishing tactics become more sophisticated, our research shows that employees who have undergone security training are far less likely to fall victim to a phishing attack,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “Our research shows that employee education and training significantly improves a company’s overall security defenses, especially as phishing attacks continue to grow more sophisticated and difficult to detect.”

As a result of effective training provided by Wombat, Ponemon estimates a cost savings of $1.8 million or $188.4 per employee/user. If companies paid Wombat’s standard fee of $3.69 per user for a program for up to 10,000 users, Ponemon determined a very substantial net benefit of $184.7 per user – for a remarkable annual rate of return on investment of 50x.

“Our Wombat Wisdom event provides an excellent forum for our customers to collaborate on security training best practices and learn from each other,” said Amy Baker, VP of Marketing. “Our data continues to show that a continuous training methodology does change employee behavior and reduce risk within an organization, and we look forward to facilitating an open discussion on the latest innovations and best practices in security education and training.”

Recent awards and recognition for Wombat include winning two Info Security Products Guide Awards, winning the Cyber Defense Innovator Award, being named one of the 20 Most Promising Enterprise Security Companies in 2015, winner of the 2015 Pennsylvania Governor’s Impact Awards and being designated one of the hot 500 Cybersecurity Companies to Watch in 2015.

About Ponemon Institute

Ponemon Institute conducts independent research and education that advances information security, data protection, privacy and responsible information management practices within businesses and governments throughout the world. Our mission is to conduct high quality, empirical studies on critical issues that affect the protection of information assets and IT infrastructure. As a member of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), we uphold strict data confidentiality, privacy and ethical research standards.

About Wombat Security Technologies

Wombat Security Technologies provides information security awareness and training software to help organizations teach their employees secure behavior. Their SaaS-based cyber security education solution includes a platform of integrated broad assessments, as well as a library of simulated attacks and brief interactive training modules. Wombat’s solutions help organizations reduce successful phishing attacks and malware infections up to 90%. Wombat is helping Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 customers in industry segments such as finance, technology, banking, higher education, retail, and consumer packaged goods to strengthen their cyber security defenses.