Social engineering is the formal name for the psychology of persuading people to feel the need to take certain actions. It’s the way that advertisers convince you that a certain brand of jeans is cooler than another. Or how public health campaigns remind you to get your flu shot. In cybersecurity, social engineering is considerably more sinister – and the domain of cybercriminals who perpetrate phishing attacks. Bad actors use all sorts of psychological tricks to lure their victims into opening dodgy emails, clicking suspicious links, handing over passwords, downloading sketchy attachments and engaging in other unsafe behaviors that can put your business at risk of damaging disasters like ransomware. These 10 facts about social engineering paint a picture of how it influences cybercrime and what you can do to protect your business from the trouble it can bring in its wake.
10 Facts About Social Engineering That Tell the Tale of This Threat
- The number one type of social engineering attack is phishing.
- 43% of IT professionals say they have been targeted by social engineering in the last year.
- Social engineering attacks are responsible for 93% of successful data breaches
- 45% of employees click emails they consider to be suspicious “just in case it’s important.”
- 71% of IT professionals say they’ve experienced employees falling for a social engineering attack.
- On average, social engineering attacks cost $130,000
- 60% of IT professionals cite recent hires as being at high risk for social engineering tricks.
- 45% of employees don’t report suspicious messages out of fear of getting in trouble
- Socially engineered cyberattacks are just under 80% effective.
- The costliest socially engineered cyberattack is business email compromise – its 64 times worse than ransomware!
Kaseya 365 User Can’t Be Fooled by Social Engineering
People can be easily fooled by social engineering – but Kaseya 365 User isn’t. When you deploy Kaseya 365 User to protect your organization, you’re putting three powerful layers of automated security between phishing and your business. Powered by smart AI technology, Kaseya 365 User catches 40% more phishing messages than the competition automatically, keeping more social engineering attacks away from your employees than conventional email security solutions or clunky old SEGs.
Social engineering threats can strike at the heart of your business leaving devastating damage in their wake – and more than 60% of businesses that experience a cyberattack go out of business. Our solutions experts are ready to give you a personalized demo of Kaseya 365 User to show you how this affordable solution is the ideal choice to protect your organization from today’s biggest threat fast. Schedule a demo
