When it Comes to Being Victims of Phishing Attacks this Country is #1
Quick Answer
Webroot research found Australia leads global phishing victim rates: more than 50% of Australian office workers reported being hit by a phishing attack. Two factors drove the result: low end-user awareness (workers reused passwords, clicked suspicious links confidently, and assumed someone else would protect their data) and slow adoption of anti-phishing controls at organizations. The fix is the same as everywhere else: deploy cloud-based anti-phishing with real-time link click protection that scans URLs at delivery and again at click time, layered on top of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC enforcement. The economics work even for small Australian firms: pennies per user per day for protection that blocks the majority of inbox-bound phishing and rescues users who click anyway.
It’s a dubious honor. Apparently the people in Australia are really bad when it comes to phishing attacks. How bad? “Over half of office workers have been victims of a phishing attack.” Half!
“Australians are among the most frequently targeted by hackers and cybercriminals, and the numbers back that up. Over 50 per cent of the office workforce have been victims of a hacking attack of some kind, according to recent research on the matter. The global-scale study was performed by online security firm Webroot, a company based in the United States of America.”
For things to be this bad, two things must be true. First, people in Australia must be generally clueless about phishing attacks. And whether that’s from a lack of awareness training or general indifference, it doesn’t really matter.
Sure enough, the research confirms this. “Australians do virtually nothing to protect themselves from malicious actors on the web. They don’t seem to care whether their passwords are the same or are especially vulnerable, they don’t usually react well to phishing attacks, and they are full of false confidence at the moment of opening a suspicious link. Australian office workers expect other people to protect their data, instead of doing it themselves.”
The second thing that must be true is that organizations in Australia must not know about anti-phishing software which can prevent phishing attacks.
Anti-phishing software, with real-time link click protection, is the perfect solution for Australia’s phishing problem. The software keeps most phishing emails out of the inbox, and for the few that get through, even if an employee clicks on a malicious links, it still protects them.
How is it possible for companies in Australia to not know about Anti-phishing software? That’s not clear, but what is clear is that they need to know about it.
So, here’s an open invitation to all Australian companies to try phishing protection software form Duocircle risk free for 30 days. It sets up in 10 minutes, costs pennies a day per employee and comes with live 24/7 international customer support.
Hey Australia, it’s time to stop being #1.
General Manager
General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.
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