Whitelist Data and Links

Before you begin phishing and training your users, you must whitelist. It is extremely important that you whitelist us in order to prevent our phishing security test emails and training notifications from being blocked or filtered into your Spam folder.

Jump to:
Whitelisting Best Practices
IP Addresses and Domain Information
Whitelisting by Email Header
Adding KnowBe4 to Your SPF Records
Common Mail Servers
Common Email and Web Filters
Link Testing and Intent Analysis
Can't Whitelist in an Email Filter? Try Smart Hosting
Prevent KnowBe4 Emails From Going to Junk/Spam
Third-party Whitelisting Troubleshooting

Whitelisting Best Practices

The way you'll need to whitelist KnowBe4 varies depending on your environment. For guidance, you can use our Whitelisting Wizard which will point you in the right direction. As a best practice, we recommend whitelisting our IP addresses in your mail server if you're not using a cloud-based spam filter.  If you are using a cloud-based spam filter, you will need to whitelist by email header in your mail server and whitelist by IP address in your spam filter.

If you find that you are unable to whitelist IP addresses for whatever reason, you can whitelist our mail server domains instead.

Take into consideration the various products or services you may be using in your mail or web environment to prevent issues with deliverability. Our support team is available for assistance.

Also, consider your mail server or mail filter may have rate limiting. Rate limiting can slow or block the delivery of a phishing test when sending a large number of emails at once. Review your mail server or filter settings for its rate limiting rules to ensure that your phishing test will arrive to your users. Although we do not recommend this, a potential workaround is to temporarily turn off rate limiting but be sure to turn it back on as soon as the phishing emails have been delivered successfully.

Conduct a preliminary test campaign before your Baseline Phishing Test.

We recommend that you run at least one phishing campaign that is limited in scope to only one or two administrative users who can confirm receipt and tracking of clicks on phishing links. This should be done before the baseline test and will confirm that our phishing emails are getting through any spam/firewall protection.

As soon as you are done with your preliminary test, you should delete or hide the campaign so that it will not interfere with your reports or risk score.

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IP Addresses and Domain Information

Not sure how or where to whitelist KnowBe4? Try our Whitelisting Wizard for guidance.

For accounts located at Training.KnowBe4.com:

For accounts located at EU.KnowBe4.com:

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Whitelist by Email Header

Not sure how or where to whitelist KnowBe4? Try our Whitelisting Wizard for guidance.

If your mail server requires you to whitelist our email header (for instance, if you are using a cloud-based spam filter), you can find that here:

Email Header:

X-PHISHTEST

Email Header Text:

This is a phishing security test from KnowBe4 that has been authorized by the recipient organization

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Adding KnowBe4 to Your SPF Records

Although generally not necessary, if you'd like to add KnowBe4 to your SPF records you can do so. We have steps to do so located here: Adding KnowBe4 to your SPF records

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Common Mail Servers

Do you need assistance with setting up whitelisting? The steps that need to be taken will vary across different email clients, servers, and internet security platforms. Here are some articles that may be helpful:

Exchange 2007/2010: 

• Setting up an IP Allow List in Exchange 2007
• Setting up an IP Allow List in Exchange 2010
• Creating Transport Rules in Exchange 2010
• Whitelisting by Header in Exchange 2010

Exchange 2013, 2016, & Office 365: 

• Exchange 2013, 2016, & Office 365 (Whitelist by IP Addresses)
• Exchange 2013, 2016, & Office 365 (Whitelist by Email Header)
  Whitelisting Training Emails in Office 365 (Whitelist by Email Header)
  Exchange 2013 Add-IPAllowListEntry (Command Line)
  Focused Inbox on Outlook or Office 365 (PowerShell)

GSuite/Google Apps:

• Whitelisting by IP Address in GSuite/Google Apps
• Whitelisting by Email Header in GSuite/Google Apps

If you're using GSuite, you will also need to follow the steps in this article to disable the return-path header on KnowBe4 phishing tests.

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Common Email and Web Filters: 

• Whitelisting in AppRiver
• Whitelisting in Barracuda
• Whitelisting in Cisco Ironport
  Whitelisting in EdgeWave
• Whitelisting in Forcepoint (Websense)
• Whitelisting in Forefront Protection for Exchange
  Whitelisting in Fortinet FortiGate
• Whitelisting in McAfee/MX Logic
• Whitelisting in Mimecast

Whitelisting in Proofpoint: Proofpoint has whitelisted our IP addresses and domains in their system globally, so you do not have to whitelist us there. However, if you are having issues, please see our article on Whitelisting in Proofpoint.

Whitelisting in Securence: Securence has whitelisted our IP addresses in their system globally, so you do not have to whitelist us there.

• Whitelisting in SonicWall
• Whitelisting in Sophos
• Whitelisting in SpamAssassin
• Whitelisting in Symantec.Cloud/MessageLabs

Whitelisting in Mailprotector: Mailprotector has whitelisted our IP addresses in their system globally, so you do not have to whitelist us there.

• Whitelisting in TrendMicro
• Whitelisting in VIPRE

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Link Testing and Intent Analysis

Some common email filtering and anti-spam services (such as Barracuda, Symantec, Websense, MessageLabs, etc.) will sometimes have link-following or link inspection options. These services may follow links found in incoming messages, resulting in skewed or 100% click-through rates. You can either whitelist/exempt our emails from being subject to these types of features/services or disable these features for the duration of a phishing test. More information can be found here. 

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Using a Third-party Hosted Spam/Content Filter? Try Smart Hosting

If you cannot add our whitelist data or your third-party solution impacts deliverability of the phishing emails, we are able to establish direct routes to your mail server to bypass that filtering. Just ask our technical support staff about the option of smart hosting, and they can assist you. Click here to submit a support ticket.

If you are using Exchange 2016, you may find Scenario 3 on this article helpful after speaking with our support team: Scenarios for Custom Receive Connectors in Exchange 2016

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Email from KnowBe4 Employees Going to Junk or Spam?

Occasionally, we may send you notifications about updates to the system (new features, templates, etc.), or our employees may check in with you to see how things are. If you'd like to ensure these emails will make it through without going into Junk or Spam, you can whitelist emails coming from knowbe4.com and knowbe4.mail.intercom.io

If you're using Office 365, we have instructions on how to set this up:
Whitelisting emails from KnowBe4 in Office 365

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Third-party Whitelisting Troubleshooting

KnowBe4's support team will provide assistance with whitelisting as much as possible. However, due to the many variations of mail filtering services and providers in use, we recommend working directly with your service provider to properly whitelist KnowBe4 if you're experiencing issues.

Below is an email template you may send to your service provider's support team as a request for whitelisting assistance, so they understand the services KnowBe4 offers:

Our organization uses KnowBe4, a security awareness training platform that provides simulated phishing tests and training for our employees. We would like to whitelist all KnowBe4 simulated phishing tests and training emails to ensure they successfully reach the inbox of our employees. Please provide us with the appropriate whitelisting assistance to achieve this.

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