2 min

E-mails are still the biggest concern within companies, according to research by Barracuda Networks among 280 decision makers in various industries in the EMEA. 94 percent say that this is still the most vulnerable part of a company’s security.

Most attacks via e-mail reach the financial departments. 57 percent say that these departments are the main target. 32 percent say that customer support departments are the biggest target. Barracuda states that this may be a new trend.

The best protection against e-mail attacks is to train employees. However, many companies do not provide this training very often. 29 percent say they only get a training once a year, 7 percent never had a training or were not sure about it.

As a result of this poor training, employees are also not well informed about the security protocol. 56 percent say that some employees do not comply with the security policy. 40 percent say that employees use workarounds to meet these requirements, for example through shadow IT.

Ransomware

According to the study, the training of employees leaves something to be desired. While 87 percent of decision makers think that email threats will continue to grow in the coming year. 75 percent said they had seen a steady increase in e-mail attacks in their own organisation over the past three years.

Most companies were attacked with ransomware in the past year (47 percent). 31% became the victim of an e-mail compromise attack, and as many as 75% became the victim of brand impersonation. In brand impersonation, an attacker acts as if he is speaking from a particular brand, hoping to steal data or money.

Nevertheless, various companies are taking action. For example, 38 percent said they would increase their security budget for the coming year. 36 percent are also trying to replace email with message apps like Slack or Yammer. However, 62% say that the budget for the coming year will remain the same or even decrease.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.