Organisations are facing a steady increase in all types of threats, including impersonation attacks, targeted phishing and ransomware. The same attacks that have plagued organisations for years aren’t going away.
However, the coronavirus pandemic has led to an uptick in attacks, says Brian Pinnock, who oversees Mimecast's sales engineering function in the Middle East and Africa.
“During the first 100 days of coronavirus, our threat intelligence team saw spam increase by 46%, impersonation by 75% and there was a massive 385% increase in malware,” he says.
Mimecast also noted a 97% increase in unsafe clicks by users over the same time frame.
“This is likely an indication of people letting their guards down and desperate to learn more as communication channels were flooded with information – both legitimate and fake – about the virus.”
Mimecast is also finding that the tactics bad actors are using to target their victims are evolving.
“We’re seeing increasing instances of e-mail spoofing and domain spoofing, forcing organisations to look outside of their own perimeters to see how their brands are being impersonated online and used to target and fool their customers and partners,” says Pinnock.
Good enough?
“Employees are the last line of defence in any organisation and an effective security awareness training programme is an essential tool in any cyber resilience strategy,” he adds.
Unfortunately, many companies have no training, irregular training or a programme that is neither effective nor memorable.
Integrating awareness training
“Criminals are using impersonation and brand exploitation to take advantage of the uncertainty during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Traditional e-mail and Web security solutions will no longer cut it. Organisations need to integrate awareness training into their strategies and protect their brand online,” he says.
Additionally, with frequent, consistent, engaging content that humanises security, security awareness training is an effective way to reduce risk inside the network and organisation.”
Pinnock will be presenting a webinar, hosted by Mimecast in collaboration with ITWeb, on 11 June at 9 am, to help business overcome the risk associated with disruption.
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