In the holiday spirit, Lookout Inc. is warning employees and businesses that phishing attacks across organizations and personal devices are expected to more than double this week, based on historical data.
This week as the holiday shopping season kicks off, many employees will be working (and shopping) on their mobile devices, and, as this is part of a more modern business model, the mobile devices these employees use are traditionally neglected by corporate cyber security strategies. This creates a perfect environment for hackers to carry out socially engineered phishing attacks leading to credential theft and direct access to sensitive corporate data.
Lookout surveyed 1,515 employees yielding the following notable data points:
- 63% admit that they are more distracted during Thanksgiving week
- 89% will capitalize on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales
- 57% admit they are more likely to click on unfamiliar links in search of good deals
- 66% will shop on personal mobile phones
- 47% reported their employer provides no mobile security platform
“As employees are distracted by shopping on their mobile device, CISOs face a significant phishing risk. But rather than just focusing on the particular methods attackers may use this Thanksgiving, businesses should take a data-centric approach and monitor for changes in user behavior and anomalous data transfers,” said David Richardson, Vice President of Endpoint and Threat Intelligence, Lookout.
George McGregor, VP, Approov Mobile Security had this to say:
“Half the employees surveyed report that their employers provide no mobile security for their devices!
“Two types of security leaders should read this report with trepidation: Enterprise leaders must ensure the enterprise apps their employees use are protected, and e-commerce app owners must put in place effective mobile security to protect their apps.”
Emily Phelps, Director, Cyware follows with this:
“Phishing emails are like those ugly holiday sweaters: unwanted and sometimes hard to identify. They might promise you a free PlayStation 5 or a lifetime supply of gingerbread cookies, but don’t take the bait and never click on mysterious links or attachments! Always check the legitimacy of websites. A missing padlock icon in the address bar is an indicator to dash away, dash away, dash away all!”
Phishing attacks are dangerous to begin with. But at this time of year, they are insanely dangerous. That means everyone needs to be more focused on spotting these sorts of attacks so that they don’t become a victim.
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This entry was posted on November 23, 2023 at 8:11 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Lookout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Research From Lookout Warns Of ‘Significant Phishing Risk’ During The Holidays
In the holiday spirit, Lookout Inc. is warning employees and businesses that phishing attacks across organizations and personal devices are expected to more than double this week, based on historical data.
This week as the holiday shopping season kicks off, many employees will be working (and shopping) on their mobile devices, and, as this is part of a more modern business model, the mobile devices these employees use are traditionally neglected by corporate cyber security strategies. This creates a perfect environment for hackers to carry out socially engineered phishing attacks leading to credential theft and direct access to sensitive corporate data.
Lookout surveyed 1,515 employees yielding the following notable data points:
“As employees are distracted by shopping on their mobile device, CISOs face a significant phishing risk. But rather than just focusing on the particular methods attackers may use this Thanksgiving, businesses should take a data-centric approach and monitor for changes in user behavior and anomalous data transfers,” said David Richardson, Vice President of Endpoint and Threat Intelligence, Lookout.
George McGregor, VP, Approov Mobile Security had this to say:
“Half the employees surveyed report that their employers provide no mobile security for their devices!
“Two types of security leaders should read this report with trepidation: Enterprise leaders must ensure the enterprise apps their employees use are protected, and e-commerce app owners must put in place effective mobile security to protect their apps.”
Emily Phelps, Director, Cyware follows with this:
“Phishing emails are like those ugly holiday sweaters: unwanted and sometimes hard to identify. They might promise you a free PlayStation 5 or a lifetime supply of gingerbread cookies, but don’t take the bait and never click on mysterious links or attachments! Always check the legitimacy of websites. A missing padlock icon in the address bar is an indicator to dash away, dash away, dash away all!”
Phishing attacks are dangerous to begin with. But at this time of year, they are insanely dangerous. That means everyone needs to be more focused on spotting these sorts of attacks so that they don’t become a victim.
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This entry was posted on November 23, 2023 at 8:11 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Lookout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.