Phishing Attacks: A Continuously Evolving Threat

Cyber security is a game of cat and mouse.  Attackers find endless ways to infiltrate companies of all sizes and industries for monetary gain.  At the same time, companies and IT services are implementing tools and procedures to mitigate the risk of phishing attacks. The key for IT and security professionals is to constantly be evaluating evolving tools, policies and procedures.  

Attackers have not hesitated to take advantage of the new applications and technologies we use daily.  Reports indicate that: 

• 36% of all data breaches involved phishing.
• 98% of human-targeted phishing attacks begin with email.
• 3.4 billion malicious emails are sent daily.
• Direct financial loss from successful phishing attacks increased by 76% in 2022.

Despite the recent spike in attacks, these social engineering tactics (phishing attacks, impersonations) are common methods to breach a network.  Luckily, there are a series of steps to minimize risk.  We can categorize them into tools, training and optimization. 

Tools: Email and web security tools identify, block and notify of phishing and social engineering attacks. 

Training: Educating employees how to identify and handle phishing attacks can greatly minimize successful attacks. 

Optimization: Continually evaluating the policies and procedures of the tools and training that align with tactics will keep organizations proactive against attacks. 

So, what should you do? Evaluate your current approach to each of those categories.  Consider if teaming up with a managed service provider is more beneficial than utilizing internal resources.  

BriteStar For Proactive Protection + New Features (!!) 

Our managed service offering, BriteStar, allows for the proactive prevention of attacks with a carefully chosen suite of tools managed by our expert team that align with industry best practices.  

We’re excited to announce that we’ve recently added new tools to further increase protections against phishing attacks by improving email security, web security and user training.

Web Filtering Solution: Provide safe browsing for endpoint (on/off the corporate network).  Protect against ransomware, malware and phishing attempts with HTTP, HTTPS and DNS filtering.  

Data Security: Get alerts to unauthorized and abnormal access on file shares, Office 365 events and domain security events.  In other words, control and regulate who has access to sensitive business data.  The insight allows for monitoring of the activity around data to detect and respond to threats in a timely manner. 

User Awareness:  End-user training is paramount in combatting phishing attacks.  Take a hands-on approach in educating employees on how to recognize and report phishing attempts.  Ditch the multi-hour training sessions for real-world simulations with actionable reports to improve on. 

The new tool additions, alongside Brite’s expert management, add more protection for BriteStar clients, maximizing protection against evolving threats and attacks.  Are you ready to take control away from attackers with a proactive approach?