Phishing Attacks: Companies Falling Victim to Cyberattacks

Adequate cybersecurity is necessary to keep employees – and your customers – safe from being compromised, however, it’s no easy task.

Criminals attempting to compromise data and carry out additional harm have a vast arsenal of different threat vectors to choose from. In an ongoing shift from attacking end users, hackers are focusing on companies and business users, phishing attacks remain exceedingly successful.

Here is what Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at PhishLabs, said (via press release):

“The reasoning is simple, and it ultimately comes down to opportunity. Targeting businesses offers cybercriminals more opportunities to cash out on stolen information through selling credentials, gaining access to sensitive or proprietary information for espionage, or individual exploitation.”

The top target for phishing attacks has shifted, with email and online services (26% overtaking financial institutions (21%), of a list that you don’t really want to lead. A clever phishing attack with an attached piece of malicious code has the potential for catastrophe for day-to-day operations; ask any company, police department, fire department, or any other victim of ransomware attacks.

There is a reason 90 percent of financial institutions reported being targeted by a ransomware attack in 2017, according to a report from cybersecurity software firm Carbon Black.

Banks and financial institutions are the top target, attracting 70 percent of the attention in the Americas – but other verticals are no longer able to avoid attention. As discovered, criminals are exploring different threat vectors, including ramping up attacks against the supply chain.

[Image courtesy of TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay]

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