Cybersecurity Awareness Month Shines Spotlight on Phishing
On the 2W Tech blog, we have written a great deal about phishing scams because of the damage they cause organizations and the simplicity with which these crimes can be pulled off. During Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) aim to shed light on phishing attacks, especially as the month focuses on the people part of cybersecurity with the “See Yourself in Cyber” motto.
Strictly by the numbers, phishing is something every organization should be concerned with. Phishing attacks in data breaches increased 11 percent from 2019 to 2020. These schemes also grew from 25 to 36 percent based on analysis of confirmed breaches, according to Verizon.
For our clientele, phishing can be particularly dangerous. Thirty percent of small businesses consider phishing attacks to be their top cybersecurity concern, so it is of the utmost importance for SMBs to train their employees on the signs of a phishing scheme and how to critically analyze any suspicious links or attachments that they receive.
Here are some additional figures that may have you organizing a phishing training session for your team in the not-too-distant future:
- Only sixty percent of adults could define what “phishing” is, according to Google.
- Nearly three out of four companies experienced a phishing attack in 2020. (Symantec)
- Seventy-two percent of respondents reported that they check to see whether messages were legitimate (i.e., phishing or another type of scam) compared to ten percent who reported not doing so. (NCA)
- Nearly half the participants reported phishing emails to the sender (e.g., the real person the cybercrook tried to impersonate). (NCA)
- Forty-two percent of the participants said they used the reporting capability on a platform (e.g., Gmail) “very often” or “always.” (NCA)
The best way to avoid a phishing attack is to ensure you have the proper security solutions in place and that you partner with an IT consulting firm that has your back, all the time. 2W Tech is a technology solutions provider specializing in manufacturing solutions. Cybersecurity is one of our areas of expertise, so give us a call today to learn more.
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