INFOGRAPHIC
INFOGRAPHIC
Report finds phishing attacks
on the rise in South Africa
M
imecast, a leading email and
data security company, has
unveiled its third-annual State of
Email Security report. The report includes
insights from 1,025 global IT decision
makers. As cybercriminals continue to use
email as a primary vehicle to steal data
and deliver advanced threats, the results
of this research provide valuable insights
and trends around what’s affecting
organisations the most and how they can
improve their overall security posture.
Social engineering attacks are a rising
concern for organisations because
they’re often one of the most difficult to
control. Most notably, the report found
that impersonation attacks increased by
nearly two-thirds (62%) in comparison
to the results in last year’s report – with
69% of those organisations impacted by
impersonation attacks having experienced
a direct loss, specifically loss of customers
(27%), financial loss (20%) and data loss,
which 27% of South African respondents
“
cited as the thing that hurt their
organisations the most. two to three days, while a third experienced
downtime of four to five days.
Phishing attacks were the most prominent,
with 88% of South African respondents
having experienced this attack in the
previous 12 months, and 53% cited seeing
an increase in this type of attack over the
same time period. “Email security systems are the frontline
defence for most of attacks, yet, just having
and providing data on these attacks is not
what creates value for most respondents,”
said Josh Douglas, Vice President of Threat
Intelligence at Mimecast.
Not only are email-based attacks on the
rise, but they’re affecting how confident
people are in their organisation’s
cybersecurity defences – and ultimately
the ability to do their jobs. According
to the report, 51% of South African
respondents believe it is likely or inevitable
their organisation will suffer a negative
business impact from an email-borne
attack this year. “Survey results indicate that vendors need
to be able to provide actionable intelligence
out of the mass of data they collect, and not
just focus on indicators of compromise which
would only address past problems. The
Mimecast Threat Analysis Center was also
able to identify the top five global industries
being impacted by impersonation attacks
which closely aligned with the findings
in the report. Financial, manufacturing,
professional services, science and technology
and transportation industries are top targets.
Understanding these key pain points helps
organisations build a more comprehensive
cyber resilience plan. n
The report also found that business-
disrupting ransomware attacks are up 23%
in comparison to last year. A total of 43%
of respondents noted having downtime for
EMAIL SECURITY
SYSTEMS ARE
THE FRONTLINE
DEFENCE FOR
MOST OF ATTACKS,
YET, JUST HAVING
AND PROVIDING
DATA ON THESE
ATTACKS IS NOT
WHAT CREATES
VALUE FOR MOST
RESPONDENTS.
20
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com