26th March 2019

These Employees Are Most Likely to Be in Cybercriminals' Crosshairs

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By PC Mag

Pcmag - Lower-level workers and contributors are the employees most at risk for cyberattacks, according to digital marketing agency Reboot.

To understand who is most at risk, Reboot checked enterprise security firm Proofpoint's latest quarterly analysis of highly-targeted cyberattacks. They found that 67 percent of all highly-targeted attacks are carried out against "lower-level employees" such as customer service representatives.

As you can see in their infographic below, contributors are also common targets, followed by management and upper management, those in operations and production positions, and executives.

"However, given that upper management accounts for a smaller proportion of businesses, it suggests that those in C-level positions, directors, and department managers may be targeted disproportionately more often," Reboot wrote in a news release.

Interestingly, nearly 20 percent of all phishing and malware attacks target employees in public relations, marketing, and human resource positions, Reboot found.

Breaking it down by industry, pharmaceutical drug manufacturers are the most heavily hit, with an average of 71 highly targeted email-fraud attacks per company over a three-month period, the firm said. Construction companies came in second with 61 attacks per company followed by real estate firms with 54 attacks per organization.

To avoid malware and phishing scams, Reboot recommends organizations train their users to spot email fraud and be wary of unsolicited links and attachments; disable email HTML, which can sometimes run malware scripts automatically; scan all external USB and hard drives; and issue a password reset every 90 days.

Think you could spot a phishing attack? Take this quiz from Jigsaw, a company under Google's parent Alphabet, to find out. And if you're not already protected, read our reviews roundup of the best security suites.