What Cybersecurity Professionals Worry About

Updated 10/09/2021

Cybersecurity

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:

  1. Attachment inspection: Use security technology to scan all attachments and automatically quarantine those identified as a threat.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.