Email Security 2018 Review and Predictions for 2019

Today’s businesses rely heavily on email to communicate with clients, partners, and colleagues. For a technology so old and so prevalent in every organization, it becomes surprising how attackers are still able to inflict severe damage to organizations and individuals.

Partially, this happens because organizations are lacking when it comes to protecting themselves against the increasing number of customized and complex attacks. In 2017, At least 360,000 new malicious files were detected on a daily basis. That number will only grow over the years, but on its own, it’s enough to point to the necessity of cybersecurity in business – especially email security.

So, what happened during 2018:

Attacks were on the rise – 2016 broke records with the highest number of phishing attacks, with 1.2 million attacks recorded, which was an increase of 65% when compared to 2015. If that weren’t bad enough, 2017 came along.

Now in 2018, the numbers, still inconclusive,  point to an even higher number.

• Out of 13 web requests, one leads to malware every single day (there are more than a billion requests made each day)
• At the beginning of 2018, banking trojans became the primary type of malware delivered through email
• Spam rate has increased and continued to surge
• The number of ransomware attacks decreasing in volume but increasing in sophistication
• Even relatively newer technologies like the Internet of Things see a whopping increase in the number of attacks.
• A study published at the beginning of 2018 has shown some gripping results when it comes to the industries which are the most common victims of phishing attacks. The worst casualty is the insurance industry whose employees have failed the most at phishing tests within the study. Close to them are industries like manufacturing, technology, non-profit organizations, retails, healthcare, energy, education, and the government. What’s interesting, when it comes to ransomware, the education sector is the most likely to get hit by an attack, while the financial industry has the least chance of experiencing ransomware attacks.

You can see it yourself even; the news keeps hitting us about constant cyber-attacks of both major and smaller companies, making email security necessary for any company.

What about 2019?

• Ransomware will continue to be a problem, but hackers will move to other types of attacks as well.
• The email will remain the primary vehicle for malware delivery with over 92% of malware sent via email at the moment. Websites and applications delivered malware at a much lower rate.
• Spear phishing will become more prevalent. As social networks become an open window to gather sufficient details on most people, it becomes only logical that a mix of personal information and social engineering will fool many people into causing accidental damages to their own organizations.
• Email phishing is set to become more sophisticated and thus more dangerous due to the use of Machine Learning and Automation, allowing attackers to set the creation of unique and personalized phishing attacks.

The Bottom Line

The main takeaway here is obvious and points to the fact that email security should be an essential part of your cybersecurity efforts. With so many different types of email attacks going on, many of which still being on the rise, it’s essential to invest in good email security options. Feel free to contact AnubisNetworks to find out more on how to adequately protect your corporate email.