Unexpected executable action
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Ransomware Phishing Awareness
How to Recognize and Report Ransomware Phishing
Ransomware phishing uses a deceptive message to deliver malicious content, obtain access, or persuade a user to take an action that contributes to a ransomware incident.
Use this guide to turn the threat into a clear employee decision, a safe practice scenario, and a reporting step your organization can support.
Plain-English definition • Warning signs • Safe simulation ideas • Reporting practice
01Understand the threat
Ransomware Phishing: a practical definition
Ransomware phishing uses a deceptive message to deliver malicious content, obtain access, or persuade a user to take an action that contributes to a ransomware incident.
Not every ransomware incident begins with phishing, and an employee cannot determine a payload's full impact from appearance alone. Training should focus on safe handling and prompt reporting.
Source: CISA Phishing Guidance
02Recognition clues
Warning signs employees can check in a ransomware phishing message
No single clue proves that a message is malicious. Teach employees to combine the request, sender, business context, destination, and available verification route before acting.
Business lure without context
An invoice, delivery, resume, legal notice, or shared file does not match an expected task or sender relationship.
Pressure against review
The message urges immediate opening and discourages contacting the sender, support team, or process owner.
03Safe response
Move from suspicion to a supported next step
| Moment | Employee action | Program preparation |
|---|---|---|
| Before acting | Do not open or run unexpected content; confirm the task through the known workflow and report the message through the approved channel. | Publish the authentic contact, application, or reporting route somewhere employees can reach without using the message. |
| When uncertain | Pause the request and report it through the approved channel with enough context for review. | Explain what the response team needs and how employees will know that their report was received. |
| After an interaction | Stop, contact the responsible team promptly, and describe the action taken without hiding the mistake. | Provide a well-known response route and avoid communications that discourage early reporting. |
Source: NIST: Recognizing, verifying, and reporting phishing
04Practice safely
Ransomware Phishing simulation and discussion ideas
Choose one learning objective per exercise. Use fictional people, organizations, accounts, payments, documents, and events, and test the reporting route before sending to employees.
Inert attachment exercise
Use a harmless controlled file or visual example to practice reporting without executing code or macros.
Document-warning tabletop
Discuss what to do when a file requests software installation, macro enablement, or a security-control exception.
Post-interaction report
Rehearse early reporting after an employee opened an unexpected file, without blaming or asking them to investigate it.
05Campaign workflow
Build the exercise around a decision employees can repeat
- 1
Define the behavior
Write down the ransomware phishing clue being practiced, the expected action, the authorized audience, and the owner of follow-up.
- 2
Confirm the real process
Test the independent verification route, message-reporting option, response handoff, and employee support path from a representative account.
- 3
Pilot the scenario
Check delivery, links, landing content, accessibility, event records, automated inspection, stop conditions, and the explanation employees will receive.
- 4
Review in context
Reconcile intended recipients, successful deliveries, unique employee events, verified reports, response handling, and completed follow-up before drawing conclusions.
Source: NIST SP 800-50 Rev. 1: Building a Cybersecurity and Privacy Learning Program
06Useful measurement
Evaluate recognition, reporting, and the surrounding process
Record actual counts and denominators for delivery, unique recipient events, reports, and follow-up. Separate automated email inspection and repeat events where the available evidence supports doing so.
A ransomware phishing exercise samples one scenario under one set of conditions. It does not establish an employee's intent, overall security awareness, or likelihood of responding the same way to a real attack.
Use findings to improve the real workflow: clearer verification instructions, easier reporting, faster response handling, better role-specific training, or a business control that reduces reliance on email alone.
Common questions
Common questions about Phishmake's features, onboarding, and support, answered to help you get started with confidence.
Should a simulation imitate ransomware encryption?
No. Awareness objectives can be met with inert messages, safe files, and tabletop discussion without disrupting devices or imitating destructive behavior.
What should employees do after opening a suspicious attachment?
They should promptly use the organization's known response route and describe what they opened and what occurred. The authorized response team should provide the technical instructions.
Can ransomware phishing be used in a phishing simulation?
It can be practiced when the scenario is authorized, proportionate, and tied to a real reporting or verification process. Never use malware, ransomware, macros, exploits, executable code, destructive scripts, or files that can alter a device. Keep all exercise content inert and controlled.
How should ransomware phishing simulation results be measured?
Review successful delivery, unique employee events, reports, response handling, and completed follow-up. Include scenario difficulty and operating context, and do not treat a click or report as a complete measure of employee risk.
Sources & further reading
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Turn ransomware phishing awareness into a repeatable response.
Use Phishmake to run controlled employee simulations, review campaign activity, assign relevant training, and keep follow-up records in one workflow.