Email Attacks In Numbers - Things Every Business Needs To Know

Email attacks have been a growing threat to small and mid-sized businesses in recent years, with every year in the last three years being worse than the one before.

With that being the case, we’ve decided to give you an overview of all the things every business should know about email attacks and to provide you with some vital email attacks statistics.

Email Attacks by the Numbers

• In 2017, some 76% of businesses have said that they’ve experienced some form of email-based attacks

• More than 70% of IT professionals say that they are worried about email security and say that the attacks are still on the rise

• Almost a third of all phishing messages get opened by the recipients, while 12% click the malicious link

• Most professionals claim that the main problem with email security lies in poor employee behavior, while many also believe that the problem lies in poor security measures

• 1.5 million phishing sites are created every month

• 47% of those falling victim to email attacks are staff members, while 37% are executives

• The average cost of a phishing attack for a mid-size business is around $1.6 million. Small companies can even go bankrupt while large companies can still suffer from severe consequences

The most devastating email attacks statistic for any business is the fact that 60% of customers contemplate about ending their dealings with a company after it was hit with an email attack, and 30% end up leaving that business’ services altogether

The Main Things Businesses Need to Know about Email Attacks

The most common email attacks are phishing attacks, one of the oldest and still most successful form of email attacks out there. Additionally, businesses need to be wary of identity theft, and, of course, Email based malware, mostly trojans.

Besides technology, the main cause for the success of such attacks is the lack of training and reckless behavior on the part of employees.

Even some of the more problematic type of phishing – spear phishing – can often be prevented by making sure your employees always check where the emails are coming from. And always be suspicious in clicking links or downloading attachments.

Unfortunately, sometimes that isn’t enough. According to Intel, 97% of people in their study were unable to detect a sophisticated phishing email. Have a look at this example of a sophisticated Gmail phishing scam where even the address bar points to the link as being legitimate. Intel’s claim starts looking very true after that.