Now that we’re in 2020, the phishing numbers from 2019 are starting to trickle in. Numbers which attempt to quantify the state of phishing, such as how many emails were malicious and how many were effective. And so far, things look pretty bleak.
For starters, what percentage of people do you think can spot all of the phishing scams out there? It’s important to spot them all because it only takes one click to bring down an entire organization. The answer? 5% according to a survey from Security.org.
Awareness of phishing is pretty high, according to ZDNet, but there are still a lot of misconceptions out there. “Nearly everyone (96%) knew about phishing and 88% said they could accurately define it. Yet nearly half (47%) didn’t know that phishing can happen through software, 43% thought that advertisements are safe; and nearly one-third (30%) didn’t know that social media platforms can be sources of phishing.”
The good news? You know it’s out there. The bad news? You’re still pretty vulnerable to phishing attacks. The biggest problem? Overconfidence. It’s one thing to be bad at something. It’s something else when you think you’re good at it. From the article, “The most alarming finding of the survey is the huge gap between the high confidence of people in their knowledge of phishing (88%) and their ability to spot all the phishing scams (5%).”
Why is it so important to be able to spot and stop phishing emails? According to an article on Health Security, “More than half of US organizations faced successful phishing and or ransomware attack in 2019.” That’s right. Half!
Don’t think you’ll be a target? “Researchers found that 90 percent of global organizations were targeted by business email compromise and spear phishing attacks in 2019.” Good luck with that.
Maybe you think you’ll be a target, but you successfully fend off the attack. According to an article on HIPAA Journal, “65% of U.S. Organizations Experienced a Successful Phishing Attack in 2019.” Good luck with that.
Phishing isn’t stopping. You’re far more vulnerable than you think. It’s highly likely you will be a victim of a phishing attack some day. Employee awareness training isn’t sufficient. You’re going to need some help.
Introducing some help: Phishing Protection from DuoCircle. Phishing Protection is a cloud-based email security platform that stops phishing attacks dead in their tracks. And unlike most people, it recognizes all the scams.
To learn more about Phishing Protection and how it can protect your employees for just pennies per month, go to Phishing Protection. It works with all the major email platforms and sets up in 10 minutes. Try it risk-free for 30 days.