Wick Hill signs vendor co-founded by 'world-famous hacker'

Distie partners with security training vendor KnowBe4, founded by former hacker Kevin Mitnick

Wick Hill has signed a partnership with security training vendor KnowBe4 which was co-founded by former hacker Kevin Mitnick following his spell in US prison during the 90s.

Mitnick spent more than four years in prison for hacking and was "one of the most famous hackers in the world", according to Wick Hill's chairman Ian Kilpatrick. On his release, Mitnick helped to set up KnowBe4, which trains employees in how to avoid social engineering attacks such as phishing. He is now a shareholder and stays involved in the firm, but not in an official role.

The US-based vendor provides customers with a free phishing test which identifies high-risk employees and provides automated, internet-based security awareness training in how staff can avoid social engineering attacks.

Kilpatrick said KnowBe4 represents a great opportunity for the channel in the UK.

"The opportunity for the channel is to sell this, and then to sell other packages around it and then also to sell specific training themselves, should they wish to," he said.

"If you look at the security channel, guys are familiar with some of the issues, the problem is getting end users to recognise them and pay for the training. This provides [the resellers] with a route to clarify that they [end users] need the training.

"Everyone always thinks they are fine, but if you set up a free phishing test and you find 20 per cent of your users are clicking on a link, you are not secure at all. And that gives companies the ability to get budget to make sure their staff are trained."

Kilpatrick said Wick Hill will become KnowBe4's sole distributor in the UK and that he is hoping to recruit hundreds of partners for KnowBe4 in the UK.

Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 chief executive, said: "Phishing and spear-phishing are behind 91 per cent of data breaches. It is much less expensive to train your staff than suffer the consequences of a data breach, whether those are financial or a loss to reputation.

"Companies in the UK are discovering that an essential, additional security layer is to train your users and create a 'human firewall'."