Hopefully very few us have fallen victim to a phishing scam, but we’ve come across these scams or heard about them in the media. Fortunately, because of this awareness, less than 1% of customers are being foiled by these nefarious attempts, according to a recent report that focused on customers of major US and European banks. However, of those who were lured to these phishing sites, 45% entered in their personal information that resulted in up to $9.4 million in losses.
Phishing attacks are on the rise. According to a Panda Security investigation, scammers are creating 57,000 fake websites a week to falsely represent 375 popular brand names. As you can imagine, this large volume of phishing scams has serious implications for businesses as they strive to shield sensitive data from data breach and protect their customers from misrepresentations of their business.
A recent study by SpamTitan found that 75% of IT managers responded that the biggest source of phishing attempts for business users is email spam. An employee may receive an email that appears to be from a legitimate source requesting personal or sensitive business information. When the employee clicks the link, that action may trigger the download of malware that could access or destroy sensitive data. As phishing attacks present a clear danger to businesses, it is very important that company leadership establishes and implements strict network security measures to filter spam.
Another effective tool to fight phishing is to know the facts and educate the workforce of how avoid falling victim to these scams.