Security News > 2020 > June > COVID-19 emergence leads to 37% jump in mobile phishing attacks in 2020

Mobile phishing is on the rise according to a new study from cybersecurity company Lookout, which found a 37% increase in enterprise mobile phishing in the first quarter of 2020.

According to data collected by Lookout researchers, unmitigated mobile phishing threats could cost organizations with 10,000 mobile devices as much as $35 million per incident, and up to $150 million for organizations with 50,000 mobile devices.

Lookout researchers dove into the numbers and assessed the financial risk of mobile phishing to an organization, compiling a number of data points, including number of mobile devices, the mix between Android and iOS, whether the organization uses a Mobile Device Manager, and how many data records that organization possesses.

The report shows that unmitigated mobile phishing threats could cost organizations with 10,000 mobile devices as much as $35 million per incident, and up to $150 million for organizations with 50,000 mobile devices.

"Malicious actors have taken note of how reliant we are on mobile devices. From their perspective, mobile phishing is often the cheapest way to compromise an individual or an organization. Traditionally, people think this can only happen over email, but according to Verizon, 85% of mobile phishing happens outside of email apps. Combining the fact that over 96% of mobile users have communication or social apps on their phones and organizations are sacrificing mobile security puts everyone at risk."

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/covid-19-emergence-leads-to-37-jump-in-mobile-phishing-attacks-in-2020/#ftag=RSS56d97e7