A new study by PhishMe revealed many enterprise individuals are not properly trained to recognize and react to unfiltered phishing messages received via email channels. The survey found that approximately 69 percent of security professionals said they regularly encounter phishing messages, despite their anti-spam efforts, and are more prone to experience a data breach.
"Many enterprises believe that because they are using spam filtering tools or other email security technologies, they are safe from phishing attacks," PhishMe product management and services vice president Scott Greaux said. "What we found in our survey is that despite such filters, end users are presented with live, malicious attacks in their inboxes nearly every day."
The study noted that more than one-quarter of security intelligence professionals said business executives in their company have been compromised because of spear phishing attacks via email within the last 12 months. Another 31 percent of respondents said they were unsure if privileged individuals have been infected.
A separate report by Mashable noted that employee education is important to mitigating risks associated with spear phishing incidents. Individuals need to be aware that they are potential targets and should not just click everything they see in their inbox.
