90% of all targeted cyberattacks begin with an email. Phishing has been around nearly as long as email itself and remains so dangerous because it continues to be effective.
An email message is able to get in front of a user in a way that a hacker can't in any other way. A cleverly disguised phishing email can easily fool a user into taking an action that will infect a network with malware or result in credential theft.
Protecting users from malicious email threats is a big part of any good network security strategy. And for today’s increasingly more sophisticated threats, it takes a sophisticated solution.
One that Texas I.T. Pros recommends is Proofpoint Email Protection. This tool offers multi-layered safeguards for all types of email threats.
How Dangerous is Phishing to My Small Business?
Before we get into details on Proofpoint, let’s discuss why small businesses need to protect against phishing.
Scammers Use Increasingly Sneaky Tactics As well trained as users may be at spotting phishing, it’s hard even for the most tech savvy to keep up with increasingly sneaky tactics designed to fool them. Just a couple that have been seen recently are:
Use of links from popular programs like OneDrive and SharePoint that people tend to trust.
Use of “Zombie Phish,” which is gaining access to a user email account and replying to an old email conversation with a phishing link.
Smaller Companies See a Higher Rate of Attack In a study by Symantec related to phishing, email malware, spam, and other threats, it was found that smaller organizations are hit the most.
Approximately 1 in 323 emails is malicious for companies with 1-250 Employees
Approximately 1 in 823 emails is malicious for companies with 1001-1500 employees