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Respondent

5 Anonymous 

87:08 

Time to complete

Stu Sjouwerman

1. NAME OF NOMINEE:

KnowBe4

2. NOMINEE'S EMPLOYING ORGANIZATION:

CEO

3. NOMINEE'S POSITION AND/OR TITLE:

(855) 566-9234

4. NOMINEE'S PHONE NUMBER:

stus@knowbe4.com

5. NOMINEE'S E-MAIL ADDRESS:
Qualification Statement (What has the nominee done to warrant

this nomination?

Explain how the nominee exemplifies innovation in an awareness and training program and the

impact of the program.

Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4

I nominate (NOMINEE'S NAME AND TITLE) of (NOMINEE'S ORGANIZATION) for

the FISSEA 2021 Cybersecurity Awareness and Training Innovator Award.

6.

Stu Sjouwerman has built the world’s largest library of security awareness training and

simulated phishing templates from scratch. KnowBe4 currently has over 3,000 U.S. federal,

state and local government agencies as customers who utilize the KnowBe4 security

awareness training and simulated phishing platform. Security awareness training and

simulated phishing brings more opportunity to help protect the U.S. government, especially

our critical infrastructure, from ongoing cybersecurity attacks. In addition to KnowBe4’s

platform, the organization offers a plethora of free tools aimed to help better protect

people, including Email Exposure Check, Domain Spoof Test, Domain Doppelganger, Weak

Password Test and many more. KnowBe4 is FedRAMP authorized. FedRAMP is a

government-wide program providing a standardized approach to security assessment,

authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. FedRAMP makes

it easier for the agencies to adopt technologies helping employees become more productive

while staying secure. An organization can lower its Phish-Prone percentage, or the likelihood

of falling victim to a phishing attack, by utilizing the KnowBe4 platform. In fact, the average

Phish-Prone percentage was cut by more than half, as it went down from 37.9 percent to

14.1 percent. And after one year of testing and simulated phishing, it drops down to just two

percent. Across all industries, there’s an 87 percent improvement rate from baseline testing

to 12 months of training and testing. KnowBe4 is constantly innovating new features for its

security awareness training platform. For example, the KnowBe4 Learner Experience (LX) had

a new Learner Dashboard added. When users log in to take their security awareness training,

they will land on the new “Dashboard” homepage. The dashboard is a comprehensive

display of a learner’s training activities and simulated phishing test results. End users can

also choose to enable phishing, risk, and gamification options for the tiles they want to

include. As part of the KnowBe4 LX interface, language localization options extend to the

Learner Dashboard and are available in 25+ languages. Recently, KnowBe4 launched an AIDriven Phishing feature, which uses machine learning to deliver a personalized simulated

phishing experience to every user. Using data from KnowBe4’s Artificial Intelligence Driven

Agent (AIDA), a new recommendation engine enables admins to automate the selection of

unique phishing security test templates for their users. It analyzes user data such as the

number of failed phishing security tests, the types of attack vectors in those failures, how

often suspicious emails are reported through the Phish Alert Button, the frequency and

recency of training completions and more. These are just a few examples of how KnowBe4 is

innovating new features to better serve its customers and to help them protect their

organizations more effectively.

7. Explain how the public sector benefitted from the activities of the nominee. *
A serial entrepreneur and data security expert with more than 30 years in the IT industry, Stu

was the co-founder of Inc. 500 company Sunbelt Software, a multiple award-winning antimalware software company that was acquired 2010. Realizing that the human element of

security was being seriously neglected, he decided to help organizations manage the

problem of cybercrime social engineering tactics through new school security awareness

training and founded KnowBe4. Over the last 10 years, Stu has built a solid, reputable, now

public organization – KnowBe4. Stu’s innovations and overall work in the cybersecurity

sector have helped to keep organizations and people more secure. He has been recognized

with an Ed Tech leadership award in 2020 and an SC Award 2019 naming Stu a Top Executive

Leader of the Last 30 Years.

Describe the impact of the nominee's achievements and accomplishments

within and/or beyond the nominee's organization. *

8.

Stu is a very hands-on executive and enjoys getting involved in projects within the

organization. He hired several developers in the early days of KnowBe4 to help build the

platform.

If any of the activities of the nominee were part of a group effort, indicate the

amount and type of direct participation by the nominee as compared to other

participants. Describe how the nominee distinguished himself/herself from

other members of the group. *

9.

Stu is very philanthropic, personally donating millions of dollars over the last few years to

animal shelters and nature preservatory causes.

10. Additional information about the nominee that FISSEA should consider. *

Amanda Tarantino, Public Relations Officer, KnowBe4

11. Person making this nomination: *

Daytime Phone Number and E-Mail Address of Person making the nomination:

*

12.
7277484221 amandat@knowbe4.com