Phishing attacks are on the rise in Australia. The rapid shift towards digital services and e-commerce caused by the pandemic was first observed in 2003 and has provided bad actors with new opportunities to attack the vulnerable.
Whatever approach or tool cybercriminals use to break into a network, they all have one thing in common: access. Compromised credentials are one of the most popular ways for attackers to enter a network and are the reason behind 61% of breaches. Hackers can obtain certificates in various ways, but phishing remains the most widely used and trusted method. Companies are aware of this but constantly fail to protect systems adequately.
Phishing attacks are successful because they exploit the common human element of trust. These attacks usually appear as a benign email from a supposed colleague or perhaps a leader within an organization, someone in a position of trust. Other times, they may appear to come from an authorized partner or end user.
However, through the mist of a carefully crafted message, a cyber attacker eagerly waits for a target to fall victim to their trap. Although phishing attacks are well documented, they remain a serious and effective attack method against non-security professionals. Email-based phishing attacks have only increased. In 2021, 86% of organizations experienced a successful phishing attack – 36% more than in 2020.
A major contributing factor to the proliferation of email phishing attacks is remote working. In the past two years, the security perimeter has disappeared. Corporate networks have moved from strictly on-premises to the cloud, allowing employees to work from anywhere worldwide. Unfortunately, a dispersed workforce brings corresponding security complications. It is important to note that remote/hybrid work has blurred the boundaries between personal and professional life.
To prevent phishing scams, organizations should educate employees on recognizing the early signs of phishing scams, distinguishing phishing from phishing, and good cybersecurity practices. However, it is also essential that modernized solutions are implemented as a backbone of an organization’s cybersecurity.
Staying Cyber Smart Against Competent Criminals
Rather than fall back on legacy solutions and failed strategies, companies must rethink using proactive techniques to address cyber threats directly. Human errors are also often the cause of as much as 95% of data breaches. In this case, security leaders need to understand the normal activity level for their networks and how to identify anomalies that need to be flagged for detection, investigation, and containment to prevent damage to business systems.
Cybercriminals can go undetected on internal systems for months without adequate detection solutions. A recent example of why this visibility is important is the devastating SolarWinds breach, in which cybercriminals went undetected in network systems for six months. This incident was a wake-up call for the cybersecurity industry and will hopefully push people to take a proactive approach to cybersecurity. A threat detection, investigation,n and response (TDIR) solution can help an organization stay protected in today’s threat environment. A prevet, cR system solutions eenable organizations to create a baseline of normal behavior through machine learning technologies. Security teams can detect anomalies and implement security protocols faster.
A mix of behavioral analytics and smart cyber hygiene can prevent credential-based attacks and hostile lateral movement across the network. Another step to avoid phishing attacks is for organizations to empower staff through proactive measures to strengthen security. Employees remain a critical aspect of a company’s security posture. Having security teams that regularly audit behavioral analytic while educating employees on password best practices can go a long way to help ensure organizational security. Best practices include periodically changing passwords, using password vaults, enabling multi-factor authentication, or using adaptive authentication. Employees who routinely adopt these and other cyber hygiene practices for both personal and professional accounts minimize the risk of falling victim to a phishing attack.
Finally, security leaders can implement a regular cybersecurity awareness training program. The key to developing an effective security awareness training program is to make it accessible to all departments within the organization. This can be done using short or bite-sized knowledge exchange that gives examples of what employees can and should do to maintain responsible security online. A proactive, collaborative approach to cybersecurity can be a boon for organizational growth.
