A new survey suggests that spear-phishing costs companies an average of $1.8m per incident, or for US companies, $1.6m. The Vanson Bourne/Cloudmark survey found that spear-phishing attacks totalled 38% of all cyber attacks on companies in the past 12 months, and 90% of those who responded said that it was employees’ email – increasingly at C-suite staff – that were typically targeted. Almost 75% of IT decision makers felt that spear-phishing attacks posed a significant threat to their organisation, with 20% ranking it as the primary concern. Almost 30% of respondents revealed that spear-phishing incidents got past their cyber defences, a figure that rose to 33% in the US. Such attacks have been responsible for some high-profile data breaches in the US, including those against the Pentagon and Sony.
A new survey suggests that spear-phishing costs companies an average of $1.6m per incident, or for US companies, $1.8m. The Vanson Bourne/Cloudmark survey found that spear-phishing attacks totalled 38% of all cyber attacks on companies in the past 12 months, and 90% of those who responded said that it was employees’ email – increasingly at C-suite staff – that were typically targeted. Almost 75% of IT decision makers felt that spear-phishing attacks posed a significant threat to their organisation, with 20% ranking it as the primary concern. Almost 30% of respondents revealed that spear-phishing incidents got past their cyber defences, a figure that rose to 33% in the US. Such attacks have been responsible for some high-profile data breaches in the US, including those against the Pentagon and Sony.