In almost all of our articles so far, we have talked about the increase in phishing attacks in recent years. The year 2020 was not different from previous years. Last year, the increase in phishing attacks has continued by gaining momentum. While almost all of the companies were exposed to phishing attacks. Also, the attacks were increasingly diverse. Let’s take a look at these statistics together. Here are the 2020 phishing statistics that will blow your mind.
2020 Phishing Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind: What Changed In 2020?
The year 2020 has caused unexpected events in all of our lives. When the whole world had to go into quarantine, almost all of the companies preferred the remote working system. For the first time in history, millions of people started working from home. This number does not seem to change in 2021. Working from home or remotely helped prevent the spread of the disease during the quarantine period. But it was this system that introduced another virus into our lives. Remote work has given hackers a lot of possibilities for phishing and ransomware attacks.
That’s exactly why cyberattacks such as social engineering, BEC, phishing, and ransomware broke records last year. Almost everyone lost millions of dollars in the attacks targeting hundreds of thousands of companies, from large to small, worldwide. To prevent these losses, experts started to carry out various studies in individual and corporate cybersecurity. The first step of these studies was to identify the cyber-risks that we face, and then, you should determine the necessary precautions. Statistics obtained as a result of the research show that these measures have become vital.
According to statistics, hackers most frequently exploit phishing emails in phishing attacks. Accordingly, malicious emails are the most used method to obtain sensitive information. This is followed by ransomware attacks. In ransomware attacks, hackers aim to infiltrate individuals’ systems with malicious programs. In phishing attacks, hackers try to obtain the credentials of employees. If they get this information, they can log in with their credentials, hack the entire company’s database, and access a lot of sensitive data.
2020 Phishing Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind
Hackers did not neglect to use the advantages that were in their hands in 2020. With the transition to the remote working culture, the hacker groups that accelerated their working together began to research new vulnerabilities that they can use. Almost all phishing attacks in 2020 targeted these new vulnerabilities or human errors. After the hackers discovered these vulnerabilities, they continued their phishing attacks without stopping. Here are the 2020 phishing statistics that will blow your mind more clearly, showing the seriousness of the situation:
- The number of reported cyberattacks in the US alone reached 540 by June 2020.
- 85% of all companies, organizations, and institutions have been victims of at least one phishing attack.
- Phishing attacks accounted for 22% of data breaches in the past year.
- Nearly 1.5 million new phishing websites appear every month.
- 12% of employees share their sensitive information on phishing sites every day.
- Users reported more than 60,000 phishing sites in March 2020 alone.
- Hackers have used email services and utilities in almost 40% of phishing attacks in 2020.
- Only 3% of employees and individual users were able to spot complex phishing emails.
- Almost 80% of employees said they could understand malicious links, but those users still clicked on malicious links.
- 30% of users clicked on phishing emails, and 12% of users who clicked downloaded the malicious attachment embedded in the email or clicked the link.
- Especially people who work with a lot of data find it difficult to spot phishing emails.
- 97% of employees do not report a suspicious e-mail to the authorities.
- Mobile attacks had different dynamics than other phishing attacks. Phishing emails were used in only 19% of mobile phishing attacks.
Spear Phishing Attacks
- Spear phishing caused 95% of cyberattacks on corporate networks.
- Almost all spear-phishing attacks were aimed at gathering intelligence.
- Spear phishing attacks caused an average of $ 1.6 million in damage to companies.
- 71% of users targeted on dating sites were under the age of 18.
- Hackers impersonated a well-known brand in almost 82% of spear-phishing attacks.
Ransomware Attacks
- Phishing emails with ransomware content has increased by 97.25% over the past four years.
- In 2019, 1 out of 2 companies fell victim to a ransomware attack. Almost 40% of these companies had to pay the requested ransom. Hackers demanded an average of $ 84,000 in ransom.
- The cybersecurity market will rise to $ 170.4 billion in the next two years.
2020 Phishing Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind: How To Protect Your Company From Attacks
According to the 2020 Phishing Statistics, phishing attacks now affect all kinds of companies, big and small. In almost all industries, cyberattacks have increased significantly. As a matter of fact, attacks have become capable of overcoming the measures we know. Hackers improve every day, and the types of attacks change every day. Therefore, companies must take preventive measures against these attacks. So how can you protect your company from attacks? Here are some tips:
Instruct your employees to check the email address you sent in a suspicious situation.
Phishing emails often contain different dates and grammatical errors. Your employees can detect attacks by paying attention to them. If you suspect a situation, do not open the email or click any link or attachment. Your employees can easily report unsolicited or suspicious e-mails using our Incident Response tool in case of a possible attack.
Cyber-conscious workers are the best defense against all phishing attacks, no matter how advanced and different.
So, educate your employees on the most common cyber-attack methods that are likely to target your company. Tell them about key applications that they can use to prevent these attacks. The easiest way to do this is to use a cyber awareness educator. Our Cyber Security Awareness tool gives you the best support in this regard. You can visit our site for a comprehensive cybersecurity awareness tool, from phishing tests to informative wallpapers, from games to animations about attacks.
By keeping these basic cybersecurity tips in mind, you can protect your employees and your company from ever-evolving phishing attacks.
“This post is originally published at www.phishing.org.uk”
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