Security News > 2021 > February > How a successful phishing attack can hurt your organization

On the receiving end, a successful phishing campaign can damage an organization in more ways than one.
A report released Sunday by security provider Proofpoint looks at the impact of a phishing attack and offers tips on how to combat one.
Some 57% said their organization was hit by a successful attack last year, up from 55% in 2019.
A successful phishing attack can impact an organization in several ways.
Additional outcomes from a phishing attack included ransomware infections as cited by 47%, other malware infections by 29%, and financial loss or wire transfer fraud by 18%. Beyond email-based phishing attacks, cybercriminals like to employ other tactics.
The simulated phishing emails sent to employees by their organization used such themes as "Singapore Specialist: Coronavirus Safety Measures," "COVID-19 Hospital Visit," "FBI Warning!!! Coronavirus Scams," and "COVID-19 Infected Our Staff." In some cases, the failure rate approached 100%, meaning almost all of the employees failed to detect these as phishing scams.
News URL
Related news
- Hackers Exploit AWS Misconfigurations to Launch Phishing Attacks via SES and WorkMail (source)
- YouTube warns of AI-generated video of its CEO used in phishing attacks (source)
- Ukrainian military targeted in new Signal spear-phishing attacks (source)
- Phishing platform 'Lucid' behind wave of iOS, Android SMS attacks (source)
- iOS devices face twice the phishing attacks of Android (source)
- Windows NTLM hash leak flaw exploited in phishing attacks on governments (source)
- Three Reasons Why the Browser is Best for Stopping Phishing Attacks (source)
- Phishing detection is broken: Why most attacks feel like a zero day (source)
- DPRK Hackers Steal $137M from TRON Users in Single-Day Phishing Attack (source)