Phishing Season Never Ends

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A big spike in phishing, the most prevalent form of business email compromise (BEC), occurred along with the rise in hybrid work arrangements. As more companies and employees embrace remote work arrangements, company communications may become more vulnerable to cybercriminals.

Mar 28, 2023

Cybersecurity

Attacks on business email increased more than 80% in 2022 and 175% over the last two years.
Cybercrooks generated $2.4 billion globally from BEC attacks two years ago just from incidents reported to the FBI, 49 times the yield from ransomware ($49.2 million) and fully a third of all cybercrime gains ($6.9 billion).
FBI analysts estimate BEC losses have cost businesses around the world more than $43 billion since 2016 and the figure continues to climb.

How can your business avoid contributing to these statistics? The answers are policy and people. Minimizing the risk of email compromise starts with addressing human error, a factor that plays a role in nine of 10 data breaches. Help your remote employees avoid becoming phishing victims by following these three steps:

Lay a policy foundation—At a minimum, your IT policies should include the following: Acceptable Use, Data Breach Response, Disaster Recovery Plan and Password Protection policies.
Launch awareness training—Employees who understand how social engineering schemes like phishing work tend to adhere more closely to security policies.
Put everyone on alert—From executive suite to frontline operations, every member of your organization must participate in cyber defense.

Give us a call if you’d like support with deflecting phishing schemes and other cyberthreats.