Barracuda the provider of cloud security solutions have released its findings from a report titled “2019 Email Security Trends”, indicating that most IT professionals are more confident about their email security systems than they were a year ago, email attacks continue to have a significant impact on businesses.
The study highlights the following:
- Email attacks are having a direct business impact — and impacting the personal lives of IT security professionals
- 74% of respondents said that email attacks are having a major impact on their businesses.
- The most common effects cited were loss of employee productivity, downtime and business disruption, and damage to the reputation of the IT team.
- Nearly three-quarters of respondents reported experiencing higher stress levels, worrying about potential email security even when they’re not at work, and being forced to work nights and weekends to address email security issues.
- Phishing and ransomware are top concerns.
- 43% of organizations have been the victim of a spear-phishing attack in the past 12 months.
- Breach costs and monetary losses are on the rise.
- 78% of organizations said that the cost of email breaches is increasing.
- 66% claimed that attacks have had a direct monetary cost on their organization in the past year.
- Nearly a quarter of respondents advised that attacks have cost their organization $100,000 or more.
- Employees remain a major weak link in an organization’s security defenses.
- More than three-quarters of organizations said their employees aren’t good at spotting suspicious emails.
- There are growing concerns about insider threats and Office 365.
- 79% of IT professionals said they are worried about attacks and breaches stemming from inside the organization.
- 92% of Office 365 users have security concerns
Based on the success and proliferation of email-based attacks, IT security professionals will need to stay focused on the evolution and escalation of phishing, ransomware, and other threats and improve email security that goes beyond the traditional gateway.
(Image Courtesy: www.cybersecurity-insiders.com)