Alarming Statistics About Your Business & Phishing

Phishing is a fraudulent attempt at obtaining one’s sensitive information. This often includes usernames, emails, phone numbers, passwords and other similar details. It’s often done by pretending to be a trustworthy or legitimate entity in order to fool unaware users.

Here are some alarming statistics about phishing and how it affects our businesses on a regular basis.

1. 43% of data breaches were caused by internal actors

Internal actors such as IT employees are the biggest risk when it comes to data breaches.

2. Of that 43%, 21% came from unintentional actions by employees

Unintentional actions such as opening malicious emails and phishing scams caused 21% of those data breaches.

3. 68% of data breach incidents required public disclosure

If a data breach reveals sensitive data, it must be disclosed to the public. A breach can result in heavy fines if kept hidden.

4. 71.4% of targeted attacks involve spear-phishing emails and scams

Targeted attacks are often used by cybercriminals to obtain information about a company.

5. 66% of malware is installed by users clicking on malicious emails

Malicious emails are a large source of accidental malware installations that can lead to data breaches.

6. 43% of data breaches involve social engineering

Social engineering is a form of phishing that causes almost half of all recorded data breaches.

7. Over half of all registered phishing attempts are designed to steal money

Phishing is a very common tactic used to steal a victim’s money.

8. 63% of confirmed data breaches involved compromised or weak security

This includes poor cybersecurity measures, weak passwords or stolen contact details.

Sources

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/insider-threats-reponsible-for-43/
https://www.symantec.com/content/dam/symantec/docs/reports/istr-23-executive-summary-en.pdf
https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/blog/2017/07/2017-verizon-data-breach-investigations-report/