A Security Alert - Phishing E-Mails are Behind 91% of Cyberattacks

Health & Safety - Mining, Environmental, & Cybersecurity

Date posted: 01/26/17

Scott Greene reports that simple training can prevent ransomware and data breaches. A company called PhishMe based in Leesburg, VA says that more than 90% Of cyberattacks start with a Phishing Email. First, let us define phishing and spear phishing. Phishing is using email to defraud individuals of personal or corporate information. Unlike Spear Phishing, Phishing emails are generally less personal. Spear Phishing is a targeted Phishing attempt. The email ostensibly looks as though it is from a trusted sender or contains more personal information in order to induce the targeted recipient to reveal confidential information. In both cases, the black hat hacker fraudulently seeks information including passwords, bank account information, credit cards and more. Phishing is also the leading cause of Ransom-ware. For the purposes of this article, we will refer to both Phishing and Spear Phishing as Phishing. Phishing, and its more sophisticated brother Spear Phishing are a significant problem. Phishing works when email users are enticed to open an email from a scammer who is seeking profit by obtaining personal or corporate information. Phishing is also the most common way companies and individuals are infected with Ransomware. It used to be that users were enticed to open email that indicated they had won a million dollars. However, users are certainly becoming more educated while hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Unfortunately Phishing remains the number one way attackers gain entry into computer systems. Phishme recently conducted a study to analyze users fall for these Phishing lures. PhishMe, Incorporated studied email recipients reaction to more than 40 million simulation Phishing emails. The simulated attacks were sent to employees of about 1,000 of the company customers around the world. The study took place over an 18-month period from January 2015 through July 2016.