Did you know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness month?

For those that were already aware, good on you for keeping yourself informed—your business thanks you. If you didn’t know…well, now you do!

To get things started (and to demonstrate just how important cybersecurity really is), I wanted to share with you some of the key findings from Proofpoint Essentials’ 2017 Human Factor Report…

  • Highly personalized, targeted email campaigns focus on exploiting people, not just their technology
  • Mobile threats use fraudulent mobile apps and next generation SMS phishing to target customers of major banks and other consumer brands
  • The percentage of total mobile clicks on malicious URLs more than doubled in the last year (now up to 42 percent)
  • Social media fraudulent support and/or account phishing increased by 150 percent in 2016
  • Half of the clicks on malicious URLs occur on devices that are outside the purview of enterprise desktop management
  • Physical industries equal cyber risks
  • The construction industry has the highest click through rate (CTR) for malicious links (at 7.2 percent)
  • The healthcare industry has the lowest CTR for malicious links (at 3.4 percent)
  • The average CTR on malicious URLs across industries is 4.6 percent
  • Almost 90 percent of clicks on malicious URLs occur within 24 hours after they’re delivered
  • Thursdays are ranked first for the highest volume of ransomware sent
  • Working lunch? Clicking lunch.

Download the full report from Proofpoint for detailed information on this year’s cyber threat trends.

For more information and resources on mitigating these risks, check out our new Cybersecurity Awareness blog, and reach out to your IT partner to put a cybersecurity plan in place.