One in four employees admitted to clicking on a link in a phishing email. This was the finding of a report published by Tessian in 2020. They surveyed 2,000 employees in the US and the UK, and almost half said they have made mistakes that resulted in repercussions for themselves or their company.
Cybersecurity issues are a commonplace struggle for businesses. Targeted phishing emails, lack of knowledge and a weak cyber security strategy are some of the biggest reasons that make a business vulnerable to attacks. The global pandemic has also forced some businesses to practice remote working with their employees, increasing their exposure to potential cyberattacks through less secure home offices and cloud breaches.
A research study by Deep Instinct reports that ransomware attacks increased in 2020 by 435% as compared with 2019. Ransomeware is a form of attack in which hackers infiltrate your devices and encrypt your data, demanding a ransom with the promise of restoring access once payment is made. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that global ransomware damage costs are expected to exceed US$265 billion by 2031.
The banking and financial industry is one of the most vulnerable sectors, with 45% of employees admitting they had clicked on links in phishing emails, second only to the technology sector (47%). But the blame cannot fall solely on employees. Proper training and awareness, and sound data practices are key to developing behaviour that creates a culture of security-minded people. The threats that exist will only continue to grow and evolve in an attempt to circumvent any defensive measures, so it is neccessary to be one step ahead.
Our course ‘Cybersecurity for Financial Professionals’ is a 1.5 hour course which addresses common cyber issues such as phishing, impersonation attacks and malware, and goes through some of the security practices that can be adopted, such as how to detect phishing emails, creating secure passwords and so on.
You may find the course on our eLearning platform link.
References:
https://www.tessian.com/research/the-psychology-of-human-error/
https://purplesec.us/resources/cyber-security-statistics/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckbrooks/2021/03/02/alarming-cybersecurity-stats——-what-you-need-to-know-for-2021/
https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-costs-predicted-to-reach-250-billion-usd-by-2031/