Did you know? 7 facts about spear phishing

August 11, 2021
Insights from Access Tech

Cyber-attacks are on the rise which is putting a great amount of pressure on companies, with a focus on employee and executive behavior. Sources state, “Between May 2020 and June 2021, [we] have analyzed more than 12 million cyberattacks impacting more than 3 million mailboxes at over 17,000 organizations.” This is an incredible level of power these criminals have gained, making prevention even more critical.

What is spear phishing?

“Spear phishing is a targeted attempt to steal sensitive information such as account credentials or financial information from a specific victim, often for malicious reasons.”

Here are 7 surprising, and scary, facts about spear phishing:

  • 1 in 10 social engineering attacks are business email compromising
  • 43% of phishing attacks impersonate Microsoft
  • An average organization is targeted by over 700 social engineering attacks each year
  • 77% of Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks target employees outside of financial and executive roles
  • An average CEO will receive 57 targeted phishing attacks in a year
  • 1 in 5 BEC attacks target employees in sales roles
  • IT staffers receive an average of 40 targeted phishing attacks in a year

These statistics show how effective such scams can be, and how accessible every type of employee is to a potentially catastrophic event.

Are you tuned in to your IT preventative tactics that should be ensuring such attempts are thwarted? We can help. Look to Access Tech as your guide in all things security. With over 10 years of experience in managed systems, we have the resources and knowledge to assist in averting cyber-attacks within your organization

[Sources]