Phishing attacks arebest mitigated through user education and training. The50% reduction in phishing attemptssuggests a strongawareness programthat improved employee vigilance​.

Option A (Patching)helps prevent exploits but does notdirectly reduce phishing attempts.

Option B (Configuration management)ensures proper system setup but does notaddress phishing prevention.

Option D (Threat modeling)is useful for security planning but does notactively reduce phishing attempts.

Thus,C is the correct answer, asawareness training significantly decreases phishing success rates by educating employees on email-based threats​.