NIST Phish Scale User Guide

Phishing cyber threats impact private and public sectors both in the United States and internationally. Embedded phishing awareness training programs, in which simulated phishing emails are sent to employees, are designed to prepare employees in these organizations to combat real-world phishing scenarios. Cybersecurity and phishing awareness training implementers and practitioners use the results of these programs, in part, to assess the security risk of their organization. The NIST Phish Scale is a method created for these implementers to rate an email’s human phishing detection difficulty as part of their cybersecurity awareness and phishing training programs. This User Guide outlines the Phish Scale in its entirety while providing instructional steps on how to apply it to phishing emails. Further, appendices include 1) worksheets to assist training implementers in applying the Phish Scale and 2) detailed information regarding email properties and associated research in the literature.