Cybersecurity is a pivotal concern for all businesses operating in today’s modern age. Protection against external threats to digital property and informational integrity is a top priority for multinational conglomerates and small, family-owned companies alike. One of the most prominent forms of attacks is phishing. In fact, about 90% of all data breaches that occurred in 2021 were due to phishing, according to CISCO’s Cybersecurity Threat Trends report for that year.
To understand why is phishing so abundantly present among cyberattacks, it is important to understand how it works.
What is phishing?
Phishing is an attack method based on social engineering methods. In simple terms, social engineering embodies any means by which people mislead, deceive, or defraud others. We can think of phishing as a digital form of social engineering, where attackers deceive victims into believing and acting according to false or inauthentic information presented by digital tools like emails, phone calls, texts, Wi-Fi networks and even virtual meetings.
What does phishing look like?
Several variations of phishing exist in their own right, and all are important to keep in mind when organizing your defenses against attacks.
- Email Phishing: Email phishing is the most common type of phishing attack. It is characterized by assailants trying to pass off as reputable companies, requesting targets to open malicious links or share personal information via email to resolve some alleged dispute or inquiry.
- Spear Phishing: These attacks target an individual person rather than a group of people. Here, the assailant typically has already gathered personal details about the target, such as birthdays or addresses. The use of this information helps mask the attack, making it much more believable than generic email phishing. These are the most common form of phishing, accounting for 65% of all attacks
- Whaling: Whaling involves an even narrower scope of targets. While it works in the same way as generic email phishing, it specifically takes aim at senior executives or C-suite level leadership in the hopes of compromising the information security at the highest level of management.
- Smishing and Vishing: In these attacks, telephone communications take the place of emails. Smishing involves criminals sending texts messages to targets, often claiming to be a service provider, bank, or government agency. In vishing, targets will receive phone calls from automated voice messages claiming to be from a government agency with the intent of luring sensitive information from the target, such as their social security number.
How does phishing affect your business?
Phishing attacks are responsible for more than 80% of all reported security incidents. In 2021, research by Tessian found that employees receive an average of 14 malicious emails per year. That number can grow up to 49 emails in industries such as retail and finance. In fact, experts believe that roughly 1% of all emails in circulation are phishing attacks.
Once breaches occur, nothing is off the table. Assailants will exploit any piece of information they can find, be it employee PIN numbers, home addresses, medical records, or company financial records. The aftermath of attacks can leave businesses equally devastated, not only financially, but logistically and operationally. Over 60% of organizations reported permanent data loss, 52% reported the compromising of employee personal information, and 29% reported being subjected to subsequent attacks such as malware and ransomware.
Of course, financial losses can leave companies in complete disarray. Research by IBM in 2021 found that phishing attacks cost businesses an average of $4.65 billion USD, with costs being incurred from lost intellectual property, direct monetary losses, lost revenue, and damaged reputation among other sources. In 2020 alone, scammer made over $1.8 billion USD through phishing emails – far more than any other cybercrime.
Most concerning is the impact on the well being of employees. Workers are often left feeling vulnerable and unsafe not only at work, but also at home.
What is the best measure of protection?
Like all other types of social engineering, one key factor lies at the heart of phishing attacks: human interaction. As such, your employees are highly vulnerable to being extorted and to having their safety compromised. Luckily, helping them ensure their own safety is also the most effective measure to protect your business.
Educating your employees on the dangers of phishing is the number one solution for preventing an attack. Here are some red flags to keep in mind for spotting a potential attack:
- Threatening or pressuring language or demands for immediate action
- Requests for personal information or for password verification
- Unexpected contest prizes
- Spelling or grammar errors, design flaws, and links or email addresses that don’t seem right
- Suspicious attachments or attachments you are not expecting from the claimed sender
- Automated, robotic messages on phone calls or virtual meetings
- Unfamiliar email addresses
With cybercrime transforming everyday, regular training on how to identify malicious communication is essential to keep your alert and up to date. That’s where i4Technologies can help. As experts in the latest cybersecurity trends and tools, we offer extensive and thorough training and exercise regiments to make sure your employees are capable and proficient at protecting both themselves and your business. Contact us for more information on how we best can help you best secure your data today.