Two hundred fifty-six cybersecurity professionals were surveyed last March by security firm GreatHorn regarding malware delivered by email.
- 52% were concerned with malicious payloads delivered via email
- 47% said they worry more about suspicious content in hyperlinks within emails.
- 54% said their organizations were targeted by ransomware over the last 12 months.
- 66% of those paid the ransom, some as high as $1 million or more.
- 71% are most concerned about email as the gateway for ransomware.
- 75% say ransomware has increased over the past year
- 62% expect it to continue growing even after the pandemic ends.
Below are recommendations to help combat malicious content in emails:
- Attachment inspection: Use security technology to scan all attachments and automatically quarantine those identified as a threat.
- URL inspection: Use tools to detect malicious URLs, including time-of-click protection for links that appear safe but really aren't. Time-of-click protection is a technology that involves rewriting a suspicious URL in an email to allow for further analysis.
- Behavioral analytics: Use machine learning algorithms to analyze communications with incoming and outgoing emails to help identify unusual or suspicious behaviors and top them in their tracks.