Egress: 73% of orgs were victims of phishing attacks in the last year

73% of organizations were victims of successful phishing attacks in the last year, according to the Egress 2021 Insider Data Breach Survey. IT leaders indicate that the remote and hybrid future of work will make it harder to prevent phishing incidents. Remote work has already increased the risk of a data breach, with over half (53%) of IT leaders reporting an increase in incidents caused by phishing. In addition, the research has revealed concerns over future hybrid working, with 50% of IT leaders saying it will make it harder to prevent breaches caused by malicious email attacks.

The survey, independently conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Egress, polled 500 IT leaders and 3,000 employees across the US and UK in numerous vertical markets including financial services, healthcare and legal.

Phishing attacks are still very prevalent. Employees continue to fall victim to phishing attacks with 43% not following security protocols and 36% rushing and making mistakes. The results also highlight the human cost of phishing as it found that in almost one quarter (23%) of organizations, employees who were hacked via a phishing email left the organizations — either voluntarily or involuntarily. IT leaders need to gain a firm grasp on phishing risk and put an effective strategy in place to mitigate it.

Read the full report by Egress.