In the distributed cyber security ecosystem, are leaders losing control over phishing threats?
More than 50% of IT decision makers state that phishing attacks represent a top security concern. Weaknesses in security policies, processes and infrastructure enable phishing threats to reach end users, along with ineffectual trainings intended to instill cyber security awareness in employees.
Organizations have attempted to address these issues for a long time. How else can leaders shift their focus or target their efforts in order to reduce the phishing threat risk?
In this article, discover insights that can strengthen your organization’s ability to identify security gaps, and that can help you reposition existing resources to better address the complex realities surrounding phishing threats.
Roughly 15 billion spam emails make their way across the internet everyday, which means that spam filters are “working overtime” and are liable to permit malicious phishing attack emails toslip through.
In 2021, 83% of organizations reported experiencing phishing attacks. In 2022, an additional six billionattacks are expected to occur.
Last year, roughly 214,345unique phishing websites were identified, and the number of recent phishing attacks has doubled since early 2020.
Thirty-percent of phishing emails are opened. This increases the probability of an individual unintentionally clicking on a malicious link or downloading a compelling-looking document that’s laced with malware.
Forty-two percentof workers self-reported having taken a dangerous action (clicked on an unknown link, downloaded a file, or exposed personal data) while online, failing to follow phishing prevention best practices.
One in99 emails is a phishing attack. If a ~1% attack rate doesn’t scare you, the fact that 25% of these emails manage to make their way into Office 365 inboxes just might. Office 365 represents one of the most commonly used email clients, with 60 millioncommercial users, and 50,000 small business customers worldwide.
Roughly 90% of data breaches occur on account of phishing. According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, phishing attacks may increase by as much as 400% year-over-year.
Roughly 65%of cyber attackers have leveraged spear phishing emails as a primary attack vector.
When asked about the impact of successful phishing attacks, 60% of security leaders stated that their organization lost data, 52% experienced credential compromise, and 47% of organizations contended with ransomware.
When it comes to phishing attack remediation, IBM’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report found phishing to be the second most expensive attack vector to contend with, costing organizations an average of $4.65 million.
In more eye-opening phishing attack statistics, although 93% of organizations measure the cost of phishing attacks in some way, only60%of such organizations offer formal cyber security education to their users.
In relation to phishing, the most heavily targeted sectors have historically included financial institutions, social media enterprises, SaaS/webmail services, and retail vendors.
Starting in 2016, cyber attackers staged malware and conducted spear phishing attacks in order to gain remote access into the US energy sector’s systems. After gaining access, nation-state threat actors managed to move laterally and to collect information pertaining to Industrial Control Systems.
According to the Swiss Cyber Institute,LinkedIn phishing messages represent 47%of all social media phishing attempts.
Eighty-four percent of US-based organizations state that security awareness training has lowered phishing failure rates.
Closing thoughts
Phishing emails are more pervasive than ever before and threat actors are growing increasingly ruthless. Numerous methodologies for phishing prevention exist. Many organizations could do more to prevent phishing and to reduce associated costs. What else can your company do?
Whether it’s providing education around social media phishing, applying stronger endpoint solutions that can detect malicious behavior across device types, reducingtext-message phishing, or testing out a new zero-trust strategy, your organization can build on existing approaches in order to create a more secure and phishing-free future.
According to a report from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center
Internet Crime Complaint Center
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity. The IC3 gives victims a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations on the Internet.
(IC3), it received 800,944 reports of phishing, with losses exceeding $10.3 billion in 2022. The 2022 Internet Crime Report from IC3 shows how phishing scams have become significantly more detrimental to individuals and businesses.
According to GreatHorn, 57% of organizations experience phishing attempts on a weekly or daily basis. Almost 1.2% of all emails sent are malicious, amounting to approximately 3.4 billion phishing emails each day.
According to recent research from IRONSCALES, 81% of organizations around the world have experienced an increase in email phishing attacks since March 2020, and a recent study by APWG observed a record number of phishing attacks in Q3 2022.
94% Of Organizations Report Falling Prey to Phishing Attacks. Oof… That's a doozy. Nine in 10 organizations surveyed by Egress in its Email Security Risk Report 2024 indicated that they were the victims of phishing attacks.
More than 90% of successful cyber-attacks start with a phishing email. A phishing scheme is when a link or webpage looks legitimate, but it's a trick designed by bad actors to have you reveal your passwords, social security number, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.
Phishing remains the number one attack vector, according to a new study that analyzes why users fall for these lures. The majority of cyberattacks begin with a user clicking on a phishing email. Ever wondor why users continue to fall for phishing emails?
Millennials and Gen-Z internet users are most likely to fall victim to phishing attacks. 83% of UK businesses that suffered a cyber attack in 2022 reported the attack type as phishing.
1.2% of all emails sent are reported malicious as per phishing email statistics, which translates to 3.4 billion phishing emails daily. Every 1 in 4,200 emails sent is definitely a phishing scam email.
In 2023, Global internet portals saw more than 16 percent of phishing attacks worldwide, making it the most targeted industry by phishing. Web services ranked second, while Online stores and banks followed, with over 12 and 11.29 percent of the attacks directed to these industries.
Research by Deloitte found that 91% of all cyberattacks begin with a phishing email (an email that looks like it's from someone you know but is actually from criminals).
The availability of off-the-shelf phishing kits has allowed attackers to create sophisticated, short-lived campaigns targeted at enterprise users. Current phishing protections are often ineffective, so enterprises need new ways to increase their defenses.
Phishing attacks are the number one threat vector against untrained and unaware employees. Cyber attackers continue to evolve malicious attacks that are becoming difficult to differentiate from real emails and authentic communication.
During this period, they were able to track a phishing campaign and see its impact as well as gain an insight into the elements making up its success. On average, it took 21 hours from campaign start to final victim before a phishing site was closed down.
When a cybercriminal successfully steals an individual's personal information in a phishing attack, they can use that info to pretend to be them. This can cause all sorts of trouble, like hurting their credit score, and can even damage their reputation.
The SLAM acronym can be used as a reminder of what to look for to identify possible phishing emails. The SLAM acronym stands for sender, links, attachments, message.
Phishing Attack General Statistics. As per the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 800,944 reports of phishing were received in 2022, with losses exceeding $10.3 billion. This goes on to show how significantly detrimental phishing attacks have become to individuals and businesses.
In 2022, around 480,000 incidents of cyberattacks were reported in the United States. The figure has gradually increased since 2016, when approximately 250,000 cyberattacks were registered nationwide. The number saw an uptick in 2020, reaching 540,000.
Globally, 323,972 internet users fell victim to phishing attacks in 2021. This means half of the users who were a victim of cyber crime fell for a phishing attack. This is despite Google's cyber security measures blocking 99.9% of phishing attempts from reaching users.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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