According to an article by Chad Hemenway of Insurance Journal citing a survey by cybersecurity firm, Arctic Wolf, work/business email attacks are now considered the top method of cyberattacks across several countries.
The survey included 1,000 top IT and cybersecurity heavy hitters in over 15 countries, and “70% said they were targets of at least one business email compromise (BEC). Nearly 30% said they were victims of one or more successful BEC attacks. Twenty-one percent were able to prevent the attempt or attempts,” according to the article.
Here are several data points from Arctic Wolf’s State of Cybersecurity 2024 Trends Report:
“51% of respondents ranked ransomware as the primary cyber concern for the third straight year.”
“45% claims to have been hit by a ransomware attack in the last 12 months.”
“86% said these attacks included data exfiltration.”
“Interestingly, only 57% of victims were notified of the data exfiltration by the ransomware perpetrators. In their communications, these threat actors included data release prevention as part of the ransom demand.”
“The remaining 28% of victims who identified successful data exfiltration as part of their investigation into the event were not notified by the perpetrators. In these circumstances the threat actors would likely have been planning a secondary extortion attempt threatening the unauthorized release or other malicious usage of this stolen data.”
“The current median ransom demand is $600,000. Victim organizations paid either some or all of the ransom demand 83% of the time.”
“But there is also another toll. Almost all (94%) of those who were bit by ransomware, experienced a period of significant downtime and delays in productivity, with 40% saying they experienced a period of total work stoppage. Half of those surveyed said productivity was substantially impacted anywhere from four months to more than a year following a successful attack.”
These attacks can be DEVASTATING to a business or corporation. Be vigilant! If it looks off, it most likely is, and most importantly, refrain from clicking on links or opening attachments. If you’re unsure, contact your IT company or department immediately!
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