Gone Phishing: Majority of Businesses Fall Victim to Attacks

Author - Freya Thompson

Date published:

Proofpoint; a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, has released its eighth annual State of the Phish report, which provides an in-depth look at user phishing awareness, vulnerability, and resilience. Net Defence summarise, and tell you how to avoid becoming another statistic in next year’s report.

 

The Summary for 2021

Email-Based Attacks Dominated the Threat Landscape in 2021; Tailored Security Awareness Training Remains Critical for Protecting Hybrid Work Environments

UK survey respondents results for 2021

  • 91% experienced at least one successful phishing attack.
  • 84% faced at least one email-based ransomware attack.
  • 81% faced one or more business email compromise (BEC) attack.
  • 78% dealt with at least one ransomware infection.
  • Of these, 82% opted to pay at least one ransom.
  • UK is the most likely to face high volumes of non-email-based social engineering attacks in 2021.
    • More than 20% faced 50+ smishing, social media, and vishing attacks
    • 78% faced at least one malicious USB drop.
  • The UK has the greatest security awareness programs in place, 59% Vs 57% global average.
  • 77% punish employees who interact with real or simulated phishing attacks, a 28% increase from 2021. Including inflicting monetary punishment (42%) and terminating employees (29%)

 

What can you do to avoid becoming another statistic in the 2022 report?

  • Information Security Awareness Training; your employees are your best line of defence if your IT systems don’t stop the threat.
  • Simulated phishing and other email-based attacks to test and educate your employees.
  • Information Security Incident response protocols in place; reporting, and issue handling.

 

Who We Are:

Proudly part of the Ogilvie Group, Net Defence is a third-generation family-owned business providing Managed IT, Information Security Assurance & Telephony services with trust, transparency and ownership.  Serving the North East of England and Scotland, we believe that these services should be affordable, attainable and accessible to all and offer a structured service and plans to match your organisation.

What We Do:

We protect, support and help to keep your business compliant. Our Information Security Assurance service provides the mechanisms needed to provide certainty, confidence and trust that your IT & Comms infrastructure is secure, reliable and protected.

 

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

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