The new edition of the Terranova Security Phishing Benchmark Global Report, drawing on results from the 2021 Gone Phishing TournamentTM, reveals that overall end user click rates remained high in the face of this year’s phishing simulation. It also details the rise in the number of users who would’ve compromised their devices with malware had the phishing simulation not been a safe testing environment.
The 2021 Phishing Benchmark Global Report results emphasize the growing need for all organizations to address the human element of cyber security by implementing engaging, informative security awareness training programs that leverage real-world phishing simulations to change the right end user behaviors.
These revelations come at the end of a year where digital transformation accelerated at many workplaces worldwide. The widespread adoption of remote or hybrid work cultures and related technologies enhanced collaboration and productivity, but it also meant cyber security awareness levels were tested much more frequently and with increasingly complex cyber threats.
The 2021 Gone Phishing Tournament took place over two weeks in October 2021 to coincide with Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In all, close to 1 million phishing simulation emails in 20 different languages were sent to end users during this stretch.
2021 Phishing Benchmark Global Report: Key Results
The 2021 Gone Phishing Tournament revealed that, in general, a significant portion of end users are still inclined to click on phishing email links and, in the case of this year’s simulation template, download malicious file attachments when prompted.
Nearly one in every five end users (19.8%) who received the phishing simulation email clicked on the initial message’s phishing link, which is on par with the 2020 edition of the event. In total, 14.4% of all end users failed to recognize the simulation’s resulting webpage as unsafe and clicked on the malicious file’s download link.
These realities mean that the number of initial clickers who ended up downloading the phishing simulation’s webpage file exceeded 70%, representing an increase of nearly three percentage points from the previous year.
Other key data highlights from the third edition of this event include:
- When it came to downloading the malware document, North America fared best as a region (11.8%), while Europe took the runner-up slot (14.9). The Asia Pacific region finished with the highest malware download rate.
- For click rates by industry, Education, Finance and Insurance, and Information Technology exhibited the highest totals, all scoring over 25%. Meanwhile, Healthcare, Transport, and Retail all kept their click rates under 10%.
- Information Technology had the highest click-to-download ratio across all industries, with 84% of those who clicked on the initial phishing link eventually downloading the malware file.
2021 Phishing Benchmark Global Report: Methodology
This year’s email and webpage templates were supplied by Microsoft and reflected a real-world scenario all end users may encounter in their daily lives. The template’s scenario, selected by the Terranova Security leadership team, measured several end user phishing behaviors, including clicking on a link in the body of a phishing email and delivering malware in a downloadable file through a phishing webpage.
The email and webpage spoofed the Microsoft SharePoint interface for an authentic look and feel. The email message even included instructions on how to download the file, which further enticed the end user to complete the action once they landed on the webpage. These decisions were made to give recipients a realistic sample of the increasingly complex nature of current phishing threats affecting professionals across many different industries.
End users who clicked on the webpage link to download the malware file were met with a feedback page that offered a powerful learning moment. It pointed out warning signs the user may have missed during the simulation and highlighted best practices to keep in mind moving forward, giving them the tools needed to detect and avoid future threats consistently.
Download the 2021 Phishing Benchmark Global Report to get all the results and facts from the latest edition of the Gone Phishing Tournament.
Clearview AI Set To Get A Patent…. Which Is All Sorts Of Wrong
Posted in Commentary with tags Clearview AI on December 7, 2021 by itnerdI haven’t written about notorious facial recognition company Clearview AI in some time. But they’re back in the news as it looks like that they are going to get a patent for some of their tech:
Clearview AI, the notorious facial recognition company which has partneredwith over 2,400 law enforcement agencies across the U.S, is about to receive a patent for what it describes as a first of its kind, “search engine for faces.”
Politico, which was the first to discover the patent originally filed in August 2020, determined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had sent Clearview a notice of allowance last week. That means Clearview essentially has the patent in the bag so long as it pays its administrative fees. And with well over $38 million raised so far in funding according to Crunchbase, paying the bill shouldn’t be a problem.
In an interview with Politico, Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That claimed his company’s tool would represent the first of its kind to use “large-scale internet data.” That translates to, the first facial recognition service to scrape billions of photos from social media and other publicly available databases, almost always without users’ consent. That sweeping database of faces includes somewhere around 10 billion images, according to Ton-That.
This is all sorts of wrong that has privacy advocates freaking out. And rightly so.
Mark Stamford, Cyber Security Expert and Founder of OccamSec had this to say about the patent:
“Well first, it’s not really AI. They collect a bunch of pics, use some machine learning, and then match faces to names.“
Then he goes on to say the following:
He concludes, “Beyond that, its full on black mirror land.“
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Clearview AI is a clear and present danger. No company should be allowed to do what it is doing, and given that countries worldwide along with numerous companies have tried to curtail if not stop what it is doing, one can hope that it will drive them out of existence.
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