Executives Fall for Sophisticated Phishing Scheme During Simulated Awareness Campaign
The Challenge
In early October, a national logistics company, Northern Transit Group (NTG), launched a cybersecurity awareness initiative to test leadership vigilance after recent credential-harvesting attempts in Canada’s supply chain sector. The internal IT team, working with an external awareness consultant, sent a realistic message that appeared to come from HR about a “mandatory compensation adjustment review.” The email linked to a familiar-looking dashboard.
Within 20 minutes, eight of ten executives, including two vice presidents, clicked the link and entered their credentials. The security operations center immediately flagged the simulation. Analysts found several instances of credential reuse across procurement systems and internal communications. No live compromise occurred, but the exercise exposed weaknesses in executive cyber awareness and credential hygiene.
News of the failed test moved quickly through the company and damaged confidence in leadership’s digital competence. Employees who correctly reported the email expressed frustration that the most senior staff had performed the worst. IT was forced to run additional system audits to confirm that overlapping credentials used on external services had not created unintended exposure.
From a governance perspective, the incident highlighted risks under PIPEDA. Inconsistent credential management, limited multi-factor authentication, and inadequate executive training had increased the likelihood of unauthorized access. The board’s audit committee also noted that executive training had been deprioritized in prior budgets in favor of technical staff training.
Our Solution
As NTG’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Risk Advisory Partner, we deployed a Comprehensive Executive Awareness and Governance Enhancement Program aligned to Canadian standards and PIPEDA obligations.
Key components: – Targeted executive training. Case-based workshops on phishing signals, social engineering, and credential hygiene, supported by scenario walk-throughs. – Governance and policy updates. Annual executive certifications, quarterly simulations, and a formal simulation governance policy consistent with PIPEDA and CASL. – Technical safeguards. Mandatory MFA for all executive and privileged accounts, a password vault, and stricter access provisioning. – Escalation and reporting. A defined pathway from IT to the board’s risk and audit committee to ensure oversight and accountability. – Metrics and tracking. Awareness maturity scoring and key risk indicators to measure performance and trends.
The Value
Within 90 days, NTG achieved measurable improvements:
Additional benefits: – Culture and tone at the top. Executives began championing cyber awareness, improving engagement across departments. – Restored trust. Clear communication and visible leadership participation improved staff confidence. – Sustained governance. Cyber awareness is now part of executive onboarding and annual performance objectives.
Implementation Roadmap
Phase 1: Rapid Response (Weeks 1–2) Immediate credential resets, targeted audits, log reviews, and a concise internal communication to frame the lessons learned.
Phase 2: Assessment and Design (Weeks 3–4) Gap analysis across policy, training, and identity controls. Program design aligned to PIPEDA and CASL with executive sign-off.
Phase 3: Training and Controls (Month 2) Executive workshops, phishing playbooks, MFA enforcement, and a password vault rollout. Establishment of the escalation and reporting framework.
Phase 4: Measurement and Validation (Month 3) Follow-up phishing simulation, awareness maturity scoring, and KRI dashboards for the board risk committee.
Phase 5: Sustainment (Quarterly, ongoing) Quarterly simulations, annual refresher training, periodic governance audits, and continuous improvement based on metrics.
