The Internet has become a staple of professional lives; however IT departments at firms have, in the last decade, seen growing security threats coming from the Web. Viruses and fraud resulting from compromised Internet security has translated into financial loss for many organizations. Small and midsize firms are particularly more vulnerable to IT intrusions because they have fewer security resources than their larger counterparts.
Surprisingly, the latest Kaspersky Lab report finds an encouraging shift taking shape as phishing schemes were on the decline in the month of October. Newer security protocols set up by major email service providers seem to be working at reducing malicious messages which are typically high at this time of the year.
October in Figures
According to the study released by security firm Kaspersky Lab recently, October saw the percentage of spam email decrease by almost 5 percent from September. Even though an article on Mashable indicates that the overall proportion of junk email is still 68 percent of the entire email traffic, a reduction for the month of October is significant as we go into the holiday season.
Phishing attacks lure Internet users to fall prey to click-fraud in which victims are tricked into sharing confidential financial data or sensitive business information with phishers disguised as popular brands offering legitimate services online. The latest variety of tricks used by fraudsters includes notification of fake hotel reservations, speeding tickets, free gift cards, and even political scams.
Increased cybersecurity awareness is one reason for the unusual decline in phishing scams and hoaxes designed to steal money from Internet users. In the past, fraudulent activity on the Internet was too advanced for an average user to spot differences between legitimate emails and phishing scams, but security awareness is going a long way toward helping individuals protect themselves from online fraud.
Spam in the Spotlight
If this trend continues, small scale cyber phishing attacks should decline further. However, the IT community at midsize firms will still continue to face bigger schemes posed by more organized cyber-crime syndicates which are on the rise.
Email messaging is widely used as a free and convenient means of business to business (B2B) or business to customer (B2C) communication by midsize firms. For more than a decade, IT managers have worked to reduce phishing schemes that threaten this form of communication at their organizations.
Trends such as the consumerization of IT and BYOD have meant that a great deal of IT knowledge is now held by regular employees, not only IT staff as was the case in the past.
As the general population gets more tech savvy, greater awareness on technology issues will positively impact IT security at business organizations, and the decline in phishing schemes might be an example of this already happening.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.