National Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues this week with a focus on how every employee can promote a culture of cybersecurity at work. While employee education and awareness is important, it’s even more critical that companies take a comprehensive approach to reducing the number of attacks that reach their employees in the first place. With attackers employing ever more innovative and effective forms of social engineering, companies need to build a cybersecurity strategy that focuses on how people work today across email, social media and mobile devices.
All signs indicate that cybercriminals aren’t slowing down. According to recent Proofpoint Q3 analysis:
- The volume of malicious email that used JavaScript attachments rose 69% vs. Q2 to their highest levels ever. And business email compromise (BEC) attackers continue to shift their strategies to fool both employees and traditional security solutions that only prevent embedded malware
- Social media phishing increased by more than 100% between Q2 and Q3
- More than 4,000 Android apps and more than 500 iOS apps related to the Rio Olympics exhibited risky or malicious behavior
One thing has been consistently proven: human weakness will be exploited over digital communications channels (typically via email, social media, or mobile apps), and someone will always click. Adopting advanced security approaches that are user-centric and data-centric is the optimal way forward. Organizations need to deploy comprehensive coverage for the communications channels on which users are targeted, so that people are protected on whatever network or device they use.
Today’s threats require seeing beyond the network—into every channel and device where your people work. For more information, please visit: https://www.proofpoint.com/us/visibility-beyond-network