Case Study: City of Sarasota achieves a 4.1% phishing failure rate and stronger cybersecurity with KnowBe4

City of Sarasota - Customer Case Study

The City of Sarasota, a western Florida municipality with more than 1,000 employees, sought a better security awareness solution after a 2016 ransomware incident that encrypted 160,000 files (and a $33 million ransom demand) and exposed gaps in employee phishing awareness. Director of IT Herminio Rodríguez found the incumbent security awareness training (SAT) vendor too expensive and unable to support the city’s hybrid environment (mobile devices and Outlook webmail), and turned to market leader KnowBe4 based on peer recommendations.

KnowBe4 delivered a flexible, turnkey SAT program — engaging training modules, ongoing simulated phishing tests, onboarding and annual refreshes, plus the Phish Alert Button — and even provided the requested initial on-site kickoff. The deployment worked immediately across desktops, tablets, webmail and mobile devices; measurable impact included a drop in simulated-phish failure rates from about 30% initially to 4.1% today, with improved user reporting and ongoing testing to sustain results.

City of Sarasota

Herminio Rodriguez

Director of IT