WHITE PAPER Best Practices for Protecting Against Phishing, Ransomware and Email Fraud An Osterman Research White Paper Published April 2018 SPON Osterman Research, Inc. P.O. Box 1058 • Black Diamond • Washington • 98010-1058 • USA +1 206 683 5683 •
[email protected] www.ostermanresearch.com • @mosterman Executive Summary • Various types of security threats are increasing in number and severity at a rapid pace, most notably cryptojacking malware that is focused on mining coins for the roughly 1,400 cryptocurrencies currently in use. • Organizations have been victimized by a wide range of threats and exploits, most notably phishing attacks that have penetrated corporate defenses, targeted email attacks launched from compromised accounts, and sensitive or confidential information accidentally leaked through email. • Threats are becoming more sophisticated as well-financed cybercriminal gangs develop improved variants of malware and social engineering attacks. The result is that the perceived effectiveness of current security solutions is not improving – or is actually getting worse – for many organizations. • Decision makers are most concerned about endpoints getting infected with malware through email or web browsing, user credentials being stolen through email-based phishing, and senior executives’ credentials being stolen through email-based spearphishing. • Four of the five leading concerns expressed by decision makers focus on email as the primary threat vector for cybercriminal activity, and nearly one-half of attacks are focused on account takeovers. Many organizations • Most decision makers have little confidence that their security infrastructure can adequately address infections on mobile devices, are not CEO Fraud/BEC, and preventing users personal devices from introducing malware into the corporate network.