Our security partner Sophos has released some startling news regarding an increase in phishing.
Pop quiz: What’s phishing? Here’s what other people think it is:
Not too many people guessed this one right! Sophos reports that the correct answer was the most popular response, but the term is still widely misunderstood.
What is phishing?
Phishing It’s when internet scammers send you an email pretending to be eBay, Amazon, or some other service you might not use. It usually asks you to check or verify something and takes you to a website that looks just like the real one and asks you to log in.
In a survey by Sohpos, phishing attacks in all sectors have increased since the start of the pandemic. Scarily, governmental organizations reported the largest increases, followed by business and professional services and then healthcare.
If you fall for a phishing attack, taking the bait as it were, you can expect a follow-up ransomware attack. Spyware can be installed on your system, and your information could be ransomed for millions. That’s the worst-case scenario that a large organization might face. Ordinary folk can expect to have some accounts hijacked, money stolen, and a whole lot of inconvenience along the way.
If you’re protected by KeyCloud Threat Protection, which is powered by Sophos’ ever-evolving AI, you can stop reading here. If not, there are some things you should know.
PhaaS
Phishing is an ever-evolving threat, and like all forms of cybercrime, the techniques used are increasingly elaborate. You can tell people fall for them all the time just by taking a look at the effort that goes into setting up these attacks. And like all profitable enterprises, it’s getting easier.
I’m sure you use SaaS, or Software as a Service, products such as Teams, or your CMS, but Microsoft has recently caught out something new: a Phishing as a Service. This makes it very easy for anyone to set up a phishing campaign including all the related hosting and email services that would otherwise be time-consuming and expensive.
What can you do?
Be protected from phishing
Sophos offers a trial of their class-leading, enterprise-level Endpoint Protection software, which you can start here.
Train your organisation
50% of employees will unsuspectingly click on a dangerous link in their email. Talk to us about training them not to!