Commenting on this, Steven Malone, Director of Security Product Management at Mimecast said:
“Email impersonation fraud and ransomware attacks are now the easiest way for criminals to get their hands on valuable data and money. Yet, far too many businesses rely on the thinking that they’re too small to be targeted by cyber criminals. That naive attitude could be a costly mistake.
“Our Email Security Risk Assessment showed just how many of these malicious emails are appearing in business inboxes. In the last quarter alone, there has been an 80% increase in impersonation or business email compromise – or BEC – attacks. With the number of victims ever growing, it is time for SMEs to realise that their size is irrelevant to hackers, and a breach can have a great impact on their business.
“Hackers rely on human error here, so training employees to recognise the fraudsters is the first part of the puzzle. To combat these threats, organisations must adopt a cyber-resilience strategy that tackles all organisational weak links from the bottom up. This means adopting a layered security approach, including dedicated protection from impersonation attacks and secured email systems, along with proactive measures such as simulations and employee awareness training.”
