For example, instead of reporting figures relating to the applications connected to active directory, which Ballarin says doesn’t speak to security’s impact on business success, the security leaders share how investments in incident response and recovery have shortened the downtime that could be expected in the case of an event and — more to the…

Several events have particularly contributed to this, not least threat incidents like NotPetya and regulatory developments like the passage of the European Union’s GDPR, with the result that cyber insurance premiums have grown by almost 25 times since just 2015.  One size doesn’t fit all: the insurance view of cyber risk Most major healthcare network…

The most damaging cyber threats today don’t target machines or systems—they target humans. Today, 74% of data breaches rely on exploiting the human element. From employees clicking on malicious links to being deceived by emails posing as executives and suppliers, human-targeted attacks jeopardize businesses worldwide every day.  When it comes to targeted email threats, Proofpoint…

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT have extensive business value. They can write content, clean up context, mimic writing styles and tone, and more. But what if bad actors abuse these capabilities to create highly convincing, targeted and automated phishing messages at scale?   No need to wonder as it’s already happening. Not long after…

What happened  Proofpoint recently identified a cluster of activity conducting malicious email campaigns using piano-themed messages to lure people into advance fee fraud (AFF) scams. The campaigns have occurred since at least January 2024, and are ongoing. Most of the messages target students and faculty at colleges and universities in North America, however other targeting…

Background  Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 330,000 reports of business impersonation scams and nearly 160,000 reports of government impersonation scams. This represents about half of all the fraud reported directly to the FTC. The financial losses due to email impersonation scams are staggering. They topped $1.1 billion in 2023, which…

The threat landscape moves fast. As new attack methods and social engineering techniques appear, organizations need to maintain security awareness programs that are relevant, agile and focused. Research from Proofpoint for the 2024 State of the Phish report found that most businesses used real-world threat intelligence to shape their security awareness programs in 2023. That…

When you hear the term “spoofed” email, does business email compromise (BEC) come to mind? It does for many people—especially security leaders. BEC is a form of email fraud, and it has been a top concern for chief information security officers for years.   BEC scams are a costly problem. The latest Internet Crime Report from the FBI’s…