CEO fraud reaches 1 in 6 users

With an average of 1 in 6 users receiving email-based impersonation attacks (CEO fraud attempts) , it spells bad news for organizations.

Cybercriminals need users to believe the emails being sent are legitimate. No better way can be found than to impersonate someone known to the sender. According to email security vendor Mimecast, email impersonation—aka CEO Fraud or Business Email Compromise—has risen 80% over last quarter in their latest Email Security Risk Assessment Report.

Impersonation works

Utilizing the findings from the inspection of over 140 million messages, Mimecast’s report is particularly statistically relevant and should be given the proper attention. The massive increase in impersonation denotes the cybercriminals finding greater successes with impersonation than without.

Over 40,000 impersonated email messages reached users’ inboxes, demonstrating that bad guy ingenuity can get past even the best security solutions in place. In some cases, malware-less social engineering attacks rely solely on a mix of impersonation and contextual details to fool users into wiring funds, giving up credentials, etc.

So, what can organizations to in the face of a huge increase in impersonation attacks?

Your best defense is your users

Given that these emails, according to Mimecast, are getting to the Inbox, your users become your last line of defense. It’s only through effective Security Awareness Training that they are made aware of the potential threats, the methods used to fool them, and the proper response to both not become a victim and to inform the organization of a possible attack.

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Cyber Safety Net is a KnowBe4 partner. Reposted with permission from https://blog.knowbe4.com/email-impersonation-remains-on-the-rise. Cyber Safety Net – keeping you safe online. See https://cybersafetynet.net/cyber-security-awareness-training/ to train and strengthen your human firewall. See https://youtu.be/UFpFesrcnvY and https://www.knowbe4.com/security-awareness-training-features/ to learn more.