NIST Phish Scale User Guide

Published

November 15, 2023

Author(s)

Shanee Dawkins, Jody Jacobs

Abstract

The phishing cyber threat exploits vulnerabilities in the U.S. and around the world across private and public sectors. Embedded phishing awareness training programs, where 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 cybersecurity and phishing awareness training 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.

Citation

Technical Note (NIST TN) - 2276

Report Number

2276

NIST Pub Series

Technical Note (NIST TN)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2276

Local Download

Keywords

Business Email Compromise, Cybersecurity, Human-Centered Cybersecurity, Phish Scale, Phishing, Social Engineering, Usable Cybersecurity

Citation

Dawkins, S. and Jacobs, J. (2023), NIST Phish Scale User Guide, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2276, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956851 (Accessed October 1, 2025)