What are the effects of phishing on business?

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In today’s modern time, companies need to have robust cybersecurity measures because they have become the primary targets of many criminals. Different attack methods are used but the easiest and most successful one to undertake is phishing.

Companies must be able to defend themselves against phishing and other types of online threats. In order to do that, you need to have a good understanding of how it works and how it affects your business.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a cyberattack that uses fraudulent websites and email to deceive individuals into downloading malware or giving away sensitive and confidential information, or both. It relies on the complacency and carelessness of people. A phishing attack is usually classified as a social attack or social engineering. Employees are being targeted by all sorts of phishing attacks everyday.

Phishing attacks continue to rise all over the world and they become more complicated. Even the largest firms in the world are not immune to such attacks and experience over 1,000 phishing attacks every month. Here are a few things you need to know.

• -       64% of companies have faced a phishing attack last year
• -       30% of messages used for phishing attacks were opened by targeted users
• -       32% of data breaches in the year 2018
• -       78% of cyberespionage incidents involved phishing
• -       51% of the phishing attacks had links to malware

How does phishing work?

Becoming a victim of a phishing campaign is easy. The “You have a FedEx package” is a good example. A person will get a message that appears to be from the legitimate email address of FedEx. In itself, the email is a customized message that instructs recipient to click on a link that says “package tracking,” but it will actually launch a malware. A lot of phishing attacks follow this same technique or pattern.

Spoofing is another method of phishing. In this hacking technique, there is a link in the email message that leads to a website that has been “spoofed.” The website is fraudulent as it is made to appear like the true website of a legitimate company. It will trick the careless or busy employee to key in the credentials into this spoofed website. When they enter the fake page, the phisher will then load the malware into the device of the user without the knowledge of the latter.

What are the costs?

Several data breaches have been caused by phishing attacks. A data breach costs an average of $3.86 million, as per the figures released by IBM. But these numbers alone is not enough to demonstrate the results of a phishing attack. So, here are a few things you need to know.

Reputation

Companies need trust in order to establish trust. The brand can be tarnished if it has been involved with a serious breach. It will greatly alter the brand’s perception into one that is unreliable for customers, partners, and employees. The foundation of the market capitalization of your company is your brand. Millions in market capitalization can be sabotaged because of the negative effects of a phishing attack.

Intellectual property

Intellectualproperty theft can be devastating. Phishing could compromise recipes, customer lists, research, formulas, and trade secrets. For companies in technology, food, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, one patent or design that is stolen amounts to hundreds of millions in wasted research investment.

Direct Costs

The direct costs from phishing are well reported and documented. A 2018 Internet Crime report from the FBI said phishing as well as other types of email fraud come first in internet crimes in terms of the cost.

• -       BEC or business email compromise attacks has cost businesses in the United States more than $1.2 billion
• -       Gift card scams have cost the country $70 million
• -       Direct deposit phishing cost US companies more than $100 million

You also have to pay fines if your company suffers phishing attacks. You’ll have to pay to regulatory bodies like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability. Checking the incident and giving compensation to victims whose data have been stolen can reach millions.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and let us help you protect your business, staff, and clients from phishing attacks.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro