Case Study: United Community Bank achieves stronger phishing defenses and improved employee reporting with Cofense

United Community Bank Builds Phishing Defense Program with Cofense

United Community Bank (UCB), a $10.4 billion regional bank with 140+ branches and nearly 2,000 employees, faced a rising volume of phishing attacks and needed a scalable program that would teach staff to recognize phishing without disrupting customer service. To address this, UCB selected Cofense and deployed Cofense PhishMe and Cofense Reporter to build an enterprise-wide phishing defense and user education program.

Cofense delivered cloud-based simulated phishing campaigns and a one‑click Reporter button, giving UCB actionable analytics and streamlined reporting to the SOC. Early results included a 7.4% company-wide fail rate in the first simulation, a 54% Reporter click rate, and identification of high-risk groups (20% fail rate among entry-level tellers) for targeted training—outcomes that Cofense’s platform and dashboards helped UCB use to measurably reduce susceptibility and scale education across the bank.

United Community Bank

Jim Stewart

Chief Information Security Officer