Companies like yours are investing in cybersecurity tools more than ever—global spending on cybersecurity products and services will exceed $1 trillion by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. But highly targeted attacks are on the rise as cyber criminals continue to outpace technology.

Why this disconnect between spending and successful prevention?

It’s simple when you look at the trend of current IT budgets: the majority of current spend is dedicated to security and compliance tools that protect the perimeter, manage endpoints, and patch system vulnerabilities. But cyber criminals aren’t just targeting technical vulnerabilities—they’re targeting people at every level of the organization. And their techniques are always changing.

That’s why we conduct a quarterly cybersecurity analysis revealing statistics on who is being attacked at organizations like yours, how, and what steps you can take to fight back. Here are three key trends from our latest report, “Protecting People: A Quarterly Analysis of Highly Targeted Cyber Attacks,” featuring data gathered between July–September 2018.

Trend 1: Your VIPs aren’t necessarily your VAPs: Very Attacked People

While C-level executives, directors, and department heads may be targeted disproportionately more often, individual contributors and lower-level management accounted for 67% of highly targeted malware and phishing attacks.

Trend 2: Email attacks are on the rise--both in number and frequency

Email-based corporate credential phishing attacks rose 4x vs. the previous quarter. At the same time, email fraud rose 80% over the year-ago quarter.

Trend 3: Companies in the biotech industry are the most highly targeted

Biotech, medical device makers and real estate firms are targeted with email fraud more than other industries.

To learn more about who attackers are targeting and how read our infographic below and download the full report here.

Infographic: Summary of Key Findings