PhishFirewall, a cybersecurity SaaS company, has secured and closed the lead investor in its $2.5MM series seed financing round. The Cox Group, headquartered in Mt. Vernon, Indiana leads the round, and Barry Cox, the Cox Group’s president, joins PhishFirewall’s board of directors.

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“Cybersecurity is a human problem, not a technology problem,” said Joshua Crumbaugh, PhishFirewall founder and Chief Technology Officer. “Our approach combines proven technology and neuroscience to move beyond temporary memorization and train human instincts for sustained awareness.

PhishFirewall uses automated and individualized social engineering and training, powered with artificial intelligence and advanced analytics. It creates a human firewall against phishing attacks. The company was founded by world-renowned ethical hacker and cybersecurity consultant Joshua Crumbaugh, who, for decades, protected global enterprises and the organizations that regulate them. He “hacked the unhackable” to reveal their cybersecurity weaknesses. Crumbaugh developed the PhishFirewall solution after recognizing the deep need for a scalable tool that solves the problem efficiently. His clients’ existing solutions at the time were underperforming, and their employees were still clicking on phishes and leaving the companies exposed. By addressing the problem at its source, PhishFirewall lowers the risk.

“Cybersecurity is a human problem, not a technology problem,” said Joshua Crumbaugh, PhishFirewall founder and Chief Technology Officer. “Our approach combines proven technology and neuroscience to move beyond temporary memorization and train human instincts for sustained awareness. When we audit the behaviors of a typical new client, we find that roughly 20% of hacker emails are clicked on by their employees. That means one-fifth of all data breeches and ransomware attempts were successful, at significant risk. Within four months of employing PhishFirewall methods, we’re able to get that number down to less than 1%. By 6 months, the click-through-rate is even lower. It’s the most effective defense against ransomware and data breeches that I’ve seen.”

PhishFirewall specializes in serving clients within critical infrastructure sectors. They currently serve clients in finance, manufacturing, logistics, utilities and education.

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“The demand for high-performance cybersecurity awareness and training solutions with scalable phishing emulations is rapidly growing,” said PhishFirewall CEO Johnny Thorington. “We’re seeing this demand, not only from the critical infrastructure enterprises, but from their insurers. The Cox Group’s participation in this funding round helps equip us to meet that demand. We are also proud to have Barry Cox join our board and bring his expertise growing technology-driven businesses and turnkey solutions to the team.”

“After getting to know the PhishFirewall team and seeing their product’s results firsthand, we were eager to join them,” said Barry Cox, President of The Cox Group. “Our philosophies are very similar. We believe in building lasting relationships with our customers and delivering cutting-edge solutions to their most complex challenges. We help customers improve efficiencies and lower business disruption risks. PhishFirewall is doing the same thing, just applied to cybersecurity business risks. We look very forward to helping them drive this solution into the market and protect other businesses like ours.”