Ronald Lee appointed KnowBe4 managing director of APAC to support a region that is highly vulnerable to cyberattacks
TAMPA BAY, Florida, Aug. 13, 2018 — KnowBe4, the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced it has opened a new office in Singapore, expanding its operations into the Asia-Pacific region.
Asia-Pacific is the world’s top target for cyber criminals, who take advantage of outdated systems, according to Trend Micro. In fact, the region accounted for nearly 36% of the world’s cyberattacks in the first six months of 2017.
“Asia-Pacific is a very important market for security awareness training because studies have shown that the region is more vulnerable to cyberattacks, said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. “By opening an office in Singapore, we’re expanding our global presence. My vision is to make KnowBe4 a global brand, and establishing this new office is part of our strategic plan to make that happen.”
Ronald Lee has over 23 years of experience with regional expansions, channel sales and development, channel marketing and strategic alliances. He also has an extensive background in IT and security.
Sjouwerman continued, “We’re thrilled to have Ronald join our global KnowBe4 team to head up a new region for us. He will certainly be an asset to the organization.”
Social engineering is an effective tactic used by the bad guys to gain access to sensitive information. Nearly all of today’s cyberattacks rely on social engineering and email phishing is the bad guys’ preferred method. According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Report, phishing and pretexting represent 98 percent of social incidents and 93 percent of breaches. This type of attack can devastate organizations both financially and operationally. Despite more investment in technical controls, organizations are still missing the mark when it comes to cybersecurity because they aren’t considering the human element. Given the increased threat of phishing attacks and ransomware, security awareness training is more important than ever, as people are the last line of defense.
In its phishing benchmarking study, KnowBe4 found a radical drop of careless clicking from 27 percent Phish-prone™ percentage to just 13 percent 90 days after initial training and simulated phishing, and a steeper drop to two percent after 12 months of combined phishing and computer-based training.
About KnowBe4
KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest integrated security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 20,000 organizations worldwide. Founded by data and IT security expert Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness of ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to security awareness training. Kevin Mitnick, internationally recognized computer security expert and KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer, helped design KnowBe4’s training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Thousands of organizations trust KnowBe4 to mobilize their end-users as the last line of corporate IT defense.
Number 231 on the 2017 Inc. 500 list, #70 on 2017 Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and #2 in Cybersecurity Ventures Cybersecurity 500. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida with European offices in England, the Netherlands, Germany and offices in South Africa and Singapore.
Contact: Amanda Tarantino, (727) 748-4221, [email protected]
