{"id":320058,"date":"2019-05-29T10:40:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T08:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=320058"},"modified":"2019-05-29T10:44:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T08:44:35","slug":"mimecast-research-finds-impersonation-phishing-attacks-on-the-rise-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/320058\/mimecast-research-finds-impersonation-phishing-attacks-on-the-rise-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mimecast research finds impersonation, phishing attacks on the rise in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mimecast, a leading email and data security<\/a><\/strong> company, today unveiled its third-annual State of Email Security<\/em> report. The report includes insights from 1,025 global IT decision makers.<\/p>\n

As cybercriminals continue to use email as a primary vehicle to steal data and deliver advanced threats, the results of this research provide valuable insights and trends around what\u2019s affecting organisations the most and how they can improve their overall security posture.<\/p>\n

Social engineering attacks are a rising concern for organisations because they\u2019re often one of the most difficult to control. Most notably, the report found that impersonation attacks increased by nearly two-thirds (62%) in comparison to the results in last year\u2019s report \u2013 with 69% of those organisations impacted by impersonation attacks having experienced a direct loss, specifically loss of customers (27%), financial loss (20%) and data loss, which 27% of South African respondents cited as the thing that hurt their organisations the most.<\/p>\n

Phishing attacks were the most prominent, with 88% of South African respondents having experienced this attack in the previous 12 months, and 53 percent cited seeing an increase in this type of attack over the same time period.<\/p>\n

Not only are email-based attacks on the rise, but they\u2019re affecting how confident people are in their organisation\u2019s cybersecurity defenses \u2013 and ultimately the ability to do their jobs. According to the report, 51 percent of South African respondents believe it is likely or inevitable their organisation will suffer a negative business impact from an email-borne attack this year.<\/p>\n

The report also found that business-disrupting ransomware attacks are up 23 percent in comparison to last year. Forty-three percent of respondents noted having downtime for two to three days, while a third experienced downtime of four to five days.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmail security systems are the frontline defense for most of attacks. Yet, just having and providing data on these attacks is not what creates value for most respondents,\u201d said Josh Douglas, vice president of threat intelligence at Mimecast. \u201cSurvey results indicate that vendors need to be able to provide actionable intelligence out of the mass of data they collect, and not just focus on indicators of compromise which would only address past problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mimecast Threat Analysis Center was also able to identify the top 5 global industries being impacted by impersonation attacks which closely aligned with the findings in the report. Financial, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Science\/Technology as well as Transportation Industries are top targets. Understanding these key pain points helps organisations build a more comprehensive cyber resilience plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional resources<\/strong><\/h3>\n