Security awareness training is the broad learning program; a phishing simulation is a controlled practice exercise inside that program. Training explains security risks, expected decisions and reporting procedures across many situations. A simulation sends a realistic but fake suspicious message so employees can rehearse recognizing and reporting it. The two activities answer different questions: training builds knowledge and habits, while simulations show how people apply one part of that knowledge under realistic conditions.
Neither activity should be treated as a complete security program on its own. Simulations do not teach every security topic, and a click-rate score does not fully describe employee behavior. The most useful approach is to teach first, make reporting easy, run thoughtfully designed exercises, and use the results to adapt instruction for particular threats and audiences.
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What security awareness training teaches
Security awareness training is a continuing or recurring effort to help employees recognize security issues and respond in the way the organization expects. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describes awareness programs as an effort to produce long-term behavior change, not merely to make people complete a lesson.
Recognizing a range of security risks
A broad program can cover phishing, malicious attachments, unsafe links, password and authentication practices, protection of sensitive information, device security, social engineering, remote-work risks and the process for reporting an incident. The exact curriculum should reflect the threats and systems that employees actually encounter. A person who rarely handles email attachments needs different examples from a finance employee who routinely receives payment-change requests.
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Choosing the safe response
Awareness instruction explains what to do when something looks suspicious: pause, avoid opening or replying, verify through a trusted channel, preserve relevant information and report it through the approved route. It can also explain what to do after a mistake, such as clicking a link or entering credentials. A rapid, non-punitive reporting process gives the security team a chance to contain an incident.
Building repeatable habits
People are more likely to act safely when the desired behavior is clear and convenient. Training can demonstrate how to use an email-report button, where to find help, how multi-factor authentication prompts should appear, and which requests require independent verification. Short refreshers, reminders and scenario-based activities can reinforce those habits over time.
Understanding organizational responsibilities
Employees need to know which information is sensitive, how incidents are escalated, who may authorize unusual requests and when a suspected event must be reported immediately. Managers and privileged users may require additional instruction because their decisions can affect more systems or records. Awareness training can therefore be role-based rather than identical for every worker.
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A phishing simulation is a controlled exercise in which selected employees receive a fake phishing message. The message may imitate a common lure, such as an urgent account notice or an invoice request, but it is designed for training rather than theft. The exercise lets people practice the narrow sequence of spotting, handling and reporting a suspicious message.
Recognizing cues in a realistic message
Participants can inspect the sender, domain, reply address, wording, request, attachment or link destination and sense of urgency. The exercise should reflect the kinds of messages the organization’s people might realistically receive. A message that is obviously absurd tests little; a carefully matched scenario can reveal which cues employees overlook.
Reporting instead of merely avoiding a click
The intended response is usually to report the message through the organization’s approved channel. Avoiding a click protects the individual action, but reporting gives defenders a chance to remove similar messages and investigate them. NIST materials discuss making reporting easier, including the use of a reporting button where appropriate.
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Practicing under normal working conditions
Unlike a lesson that announces its subject, a simulation arrives during ordinary work. That makes it a practice of attention, judgment and procedure rather than a quiz about definitions. The exercise should still be conducted ethically: employees should know that simulations are part of the security program, and the organization should avoid humiliating individuals or creating consequences that discourage reporting.
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Simulation results show how a particular audience responded to a particular message at a particular time. They can identify confusing procedures, groups that need more coaching, or scenarios that deserve attention. They are evidence for improving the program, not a permanent label for an employee.
How the two activities differ
| Comparison | Security awareness training | Phishing simulation |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Build broad security knowledge, judgment and response habits. | Rehearse recognition and reporting of a simulated phishing message. |
| Learning scope | Multiple security risks and procedures, potentially tailored by role. | A narrower email or message scenario and the organization’s response path. |
| Typical format | Lessons, explanations, reminders, demonstrations, discussions and activities. | Controlled delivery of a realistic fake message, followed by feedback or coaching. |
| Participant awareness | The educational purpose is normally explicit. | The individual message is designed to resemble a real lure, although the simulation program should be transparent as a policy. |
| Evidence gathered | Completion, knowledge or learning measures selected by the organization; NIST does not prescribe one universal measure. | Click and reporting outcomes, plus contextual information about the message and audience. |
| Best interpretation | Indicates preparedness and understanding across the curriculum. | Indicates behavior in one designed scenario; results require difficulty and audience context. |
| What happens next | Refresh, adapt or extend instruction where risks or misunderstandings appear. | Make reporting easier, provide targeted coaching and adjust future scenarios or lessons. |
These are complementary activities. NIST’s phishing guidance treats simulated messages as one component that can be embedded in a wider awareness program, not as a substitute for instruction about other risks or response procedures.
How a phishing simulation works from an employee’s point of view
- Receive the message. A simulated email or other message appears in the normal work environment. It may contain a link, attachment or request designed to test a defined behavior.
- Pause and inspect. Check the sender and address, the requested action, unusual urgency, unexpected attachments, link destinations and whether the request fits the normal process. Do not use the suspicious link or attachment to investigate it.
- Verify when necessary. If the request could be legitimate but is unusual, contact the purported sender through a known phone number, internal directory entry or established workflow rather than replying to the message.
- Report the message. Use the organization’s reporting button, mailbox or ticket route. Reporting is the practice the security team needs in addition to simply deleting the message.
- Receive feedback. Depending on the program, the exercise may show an immediate teaching page or provide later coaching. The feedback should explain the cues that mattered and the correct reporting route.
- Apply the lesson next time. A simulation is useful when its lesson transfers to future messages, not when the participant merely learns that one particular email was fake.
How organizations measure each activity
Training measures
There is no single NIST-mandated score for awareness training. Organizations may track whether required lessons were completed, whether knowledge checks improved, whether employees can find the reporting process, or whether role-specific exercises show better decisions. These measures answer different questions, so a completion percentage should not be presented as proof that employees will respond correctly in every situation.
Simulation click rate
A click rate is the number of recipients who clicked a potentially malicious link or attachment divided by the number of people who received the simulated message. It describes the response to that exercise. It does not establish why someone clicked, whether the person would report a real message, or how difficult the simulation was.
Simulation reporting rate
A reporting rate is the number of recipients who reported the suspicious message divided by the number who received it. Reporting is often the behavior defenders most need because it can help identify and contain a wider campaign. Track the reporting channel and timing as well as the final count if those details matter to the response process.
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Why a raw click rate is incomplete
NIST cautions that click rates alone do not provide a complete picture of staff behavior. Difficulty varies substantially between messages, and the same message can be easy for one audience and difficult for another. A highly specialized lure sent to a team that routinely handles similar requests is not directly comparable with a generic message sent to a different group.
Using the NIST Phish Scale
NIST Technical Note 2276, published in November 2023, provides the Phish Scale User Guide. It gives implementers a method to “rate an email’s human phishing detection difficulty.” Rating the message adds context to click and report rates, helping an organization compare exercises more fairly and decide whether a change reflects employee behavior, message design or both. The guide includes worksheets and is intended for people who design, run or analyze phishing exercises.
Why recipient context changes the result
A message does not have to be perfectly crafted for every person to work against one person. NIST computer scientist Shanée Dawkins expresses this point directly: “A phishing email doesn’t have to be crafted perfectly for everyone to be effective; it just has to be perfectly crafted for just one person.”
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Using simulation results to improve training
- Record the scenario. Keep the message type, apparent sender, request, link or attachment behavior, target group, delivery time and difficulty assessment. Without this context, later comparisons are weak.
- Review both clicks and reports. Examine who reported, how quickly reports arrived and whether recipients used the intended channel. A program that produces fewer clicks but almost no reports may still leave defenders without visibility.
- Look for patterns by role or workflow. A finance team may need verification practice for payment requests; a service desk may need examples involving account resets. Use group-level trends for improvement rather than publicizing individual “worst” performers.
- Provide immediate, specific coaching. Explain the cues in the message and demonstrate the reporting path. If someone interacted with the simulation, tell them what to do in a real event, including where to seek help.
- Update the broader curriculum. Add lessons, examples or job aids for the weakness revealed. A simulation about a fake password notice should not become the entire awareness program; it should inform instruction about authentication, verification and reporting.
- Repeat with variation. Future exercises should test whether the behavior transfers to a different but relevant scenario. Keep the evaluation method consistent enough to interpret changes, while adapting content to the organization and audience as NIST advises.
Handling repeat clicks without undermining reporting
The phrase “repeat clicker” describes a survey question and operational concern, not a universal category with a single remedy. Repeated interaction can result from unfamiliarity with the reporting process, a role that receives many urgent requests, accessibility or language barriers, workload, or a misunderstanding of the exercise. Treat the result as a prompt for private, supportive coaching and practical assistance.
- Confirm that the employee knows how to report and can do so quickly.
- Use examples drawn from the person’s actual workflow.
- Offer a safe way to ask whether a message is legitimate.
- Check whether technical controls, such as filtering or a report button, are failing.
- Escalate only according to a published policy, with proportional and documented responses.
Fear of embarrassment or punishment can reduce reporting. The objective is not to produce perfect scores on a test; it is to make detection and reporting ordinary, reliable actions.
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Designing an effective combined program
Start with policy and reporting
Before testing employees, define what counts as suspicious, how to report it, what happens after a report and what to do after an accidental click. Make the route visible in the mail client or other tools. If employees cannot find the process during a simulation, the exercise is measuring organizational friction as well as individual judgment.
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Teach before testing
Give employees the baseline knowledge needed to succeed: common warning signs, verification methods, the reporting route and the organization’s expectations. Simulations can then reinforce and evaluate the lesson rather than functioning as a surprise substitute for instruction.
Match examples to risk
Use scenarios relevant to the organization’s systems, suppliers, customers and job roles. Avoid collecting unnecessary personal information and avoid messages that could cause real financial, health or employment harm. The aim is realistic practice within controlled boundaries.
Separate learning from blame
Publish the simulation policy, explain that exercises are intended to improve defenses and protect the confidentiality of individual results. Give managers aggregate information unless a documented process requires a person-specific intervention. A fair program encourages employees to report real suspicious messages quickly.
Use layered learning
Combine foundational instruction, short reminders, role-specific guidance, simulations and post-exercise coaching. Different formats reach different needs: a lesson can explain a principle, a demonstration can show a tool, and a simulation can test whether the response is available under pressure.
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How often should simulations run?
The reviewed NIST materials do not establish a universal cadence that is best for every organization. Frequency should follow risk, workforce changes, threat activity, operational tolerance and the time needed to provide useful feedback. A program that sends exercises so often that employees ignore all messages can damage the very attention it seeks to build; one that never practices leaves the reporting procedure unfamiliar.
Set a documented schedule or decision rule, communicate the existence of the program, vary scenarios appropriately and review results after each cycle. Increase or change practice when a new threat, workflow or audience warrants it, rather than treating a calendar number as proof of effectiveness.
What the available figures do—and do not—show
NISTIR 8420A reported that just over 85% of the 89 participant organizations in its federal cybersecurity awareness-program study performed some type of phishing simulation. This is a finding about those study participants, not the share of all organizations, and the study is older context rather than a current prevalence estimate.
The reviewed sources do not provide a directly comparable statistic proving that awareness training is more effective than simulations, or that simulations alone reduce real-world phishing incidents. They also do not identify one universally superior training format. Claims of that kind require evidence matched to the population, program design and outcome being measured.
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A CISA fact sheet published in August 2025 recommends realistic simulations and employee training for state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments. That recommendation applies to the SLTT context; it should not be presented as a universal mandate for every organization. These governments can use the same combined model: teach the expected response, make reporting straightforward, exercise realistic scenarios and interpret results with the audience and message difficulty in view.
A practical decision framework
| If your immediate need is… | Prioritize… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Employees do not know what to report or where to report it | Foundational awareness training and a clear reporting workflow | A simulation cannot repair an undefined or inaccessible process. |
| You want to practice recognizing suspicious email | A carefully scoped phishing simulation after baseline instruction | The exercise rehearses the specific behavior in context. |
| Click rates changed sharply between exercises | Message-difficulty and audience analysis using the Phish Scale approach | Raw rates are not comparable without context. |
| Reports are low even when clicks are low | Coaching on reporting and easier reporting tools | Avoidance without notification limits the security team’s visibility. |
| One role repeatedly struggles | Private, role-specific coaching and workflow review | The cause may be process or context rather than lack of general knowledge. |
| You need broader resilience | A continuing awareness program with simulations as one component | Phishing practice does not cover every security risk or response duty. |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using click rate as the sole score. Include reporting, difficulty, audience and the action taken after the exercise.
- Replacing training with simulations. A fake email cannot teach all the organization’s security responsibilities.
- Testing before explaining the response. Employees need to know how and where to report before results can be interpreted fairly.
- Making the exercise punitive or humiliating. This can discourage real incident reporting and undermine trust.
- Comparing unlike exercises. Different lures, roles, timing and difficulty can produce different outcomes even when behavior is unchanged.
- Ignoring successful reports. Reporting is a defensive behavior worth measuring and reinforcing, not merely a secondary statistic.
- Assuming one cadence fits all. NIST does not prescribe a universal frequency in the reviewed material.
- Claiming causation without evidence. The available sources do not establish that simulations alone reduce real-world incidents.
Bottom line for program owners
Teach security broadly, then practice the response you need most. Awareness training gives employees the concepts, procedures and habits to recognize and handle many security risks. Phishing simulations provide realistic rehearsal and evidence about how a defined audience responds to a defined message. Use both, make reporting easy, rate message difficulty, interpret results in context and adapt instruction to the threats and people involved. The meaningful outcome is not a perfect simulation score; it is a workforce that can recognize a suspicious request, report it promptly and recover correctly when someone makes a mistake.
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