Discover the latest confidential stats and facts charting the rise of Spam, Malware, Ransonware and Phishing in 2015. It makes for sobering reading for any responsible IT Manager.

1. IT Manager’s Eyes Only
october 2015
TOP SEC

2. Multiple Intelligence reports have
identified significant, sinister threats
to global email communication networks
from coordinated underworld cyber
criminals. The threat is real and
substantial. Immediate action is
recommended to avoid catastrophe.
TOP SEC

3. Email remains the most common and
prevalent form of communication
in the business world.
RADICATI.COM

4. The total number of worldwide email
users, including both business and
consumers, is projected to go from
over 2.5 billion in 2014 to over 2.8
billion in 2018.
RADICATI.COM

5. Business users send and receive on average
121 emails a day in 2014 (projected to be 140
emails a day by 2018)
In 2014, the majority of email traffic came from
the business world, which accounts for over 108.7
billion emails sent and received per day.
By 2018, business email will account for over 139.4
billion emails sent and received per day.
By the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are
expected to total over 2.2 billion.
RADICATI.COM

6. The rapid expansion of email as the
single biggest primary
business communication channel has
fuelled a counter culture in
security threats and data breaches.

7. Spam, malware, ransomware and
phishing are all rising.

8. Think about your own company when you
view the following slides…

9. of employees access personal email from their business
computer, more than double the level of authorised use.
PINECOMPUTERS.NET

10. The average cost of a
data breach for large
enterprises is $429,000,
and 88% of companies have
experienced some degree
of data loss.
of employees receive
unencrypted, risky
corporate data via
email or attachment.
People send and receive
an average of 15 email
attachments every day
(over 5,000 attachments
per year).
THEAMERICANGENIUS.COM

11. SYMANTEC.COM
Cyber criminals targeted 5 out of 6 large companies
using email attacks in 2014 (an increase of 40%).
SME businesses also saw an uptick, with attacks
increasing 26% and 30% respectively.

12. unsolicited messages contain a
malicious attachment or link.
WWW2.TRUSTWAVE.COM

13. 28% of breaches result from poor passwords, and
another 28% from weak remote access security.
WWW2.TRUSTWAVE.COM

14. 39% of passwords are eight characters, a length
that takes an average of one day to crack.
(Compare that to 10-character passwords, which
take an average of 591 days.)WWW2.TRUSTWAVE.COM

15. increase in total cost
over 2013 levels.
In 2014, the average
cost of an enterprise
data breach reached
$3.79 million, a
WWW-01.IBM.COM

16. www.symantec.com

18. An increase of 317 million new
pieces of malware were created.
There are over 1.7 billion pieces
of malware currently in circulation
that could infect your inbox.
Non-targeted attacks of malware
increased by 26% in 2014.
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

19. WW.SYMANTEC.COMWWW.SYMANTEC.COM

20. YOU CANNOT DEPEND ON VIRTUAL SANDBOXING
TO OBSERVE AND DETECT MALWARE.
Certain malware like W32.Crisis, upon detecting
a virtual machine, will search for other
virtual machine images and infect them.
In 2014, up to 28% of all malware
was ‘virtual machine aware’.
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

22. There was a 4,000% increase in crypto-ransomware attacks.
Ransomware attacks grew 113% in 2014.
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

23. WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

24. In 2013, crypto-ransomware
accounted for approximately
0.2 percent of all ransomware
attacks. By the end of 2014
this figure grgew to 4 percent
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

26. GETCYBERSAFE.GC.CA

27. PHISHING ATTACKS COST GLOBAL ORGANISATIONS
$4.5 BILLION IN LOSSES IN 2014.
EMC.COM

28. from 2010 to 2014.
Phishing attacks rose by
EMC.COM

29. of people globally can’t correctly
identify a sophisticated phishing email.
securityaffairs.co

30. phishing.org

32. Spear phishing file type
breakdown analysis 2014
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

33. Risk ratio of spear
phishing attacks by
industry
The mining industry
was the most heavily
targeted in 2014, with
43 percent (1 in 2.3)
of mining organizations
being targeted at least
once during the year.
WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

34. WWW.SYMANTEC.COM
Individuals in sales/
marketing job roles
were the most targeted
in 2014, with 1 in 2.9
of them being targeted
at least once; this
is equivalent to 35%
of sales/marketing
personnel

35. Cybercriminals rely on an underground
online economy to buy and sell
services and malware and to fence stolen
credit cards and botnets.
CYBERCRIME HAS A 1,425%
RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

36. WWW.SYMANTEC.COM

38. 45% of businesses have board or senior level
management who take only a partial role in security
matters. 9% do not partake at all.
IN MANY CASES, THE IT MANAGER MUST TAKE FULL
RESPONSIBILITY ON THEIR OWN.
trustwave.com

39. In 2013, 4 out of 5 IT professionals were pressured
to rollout IT projects despite security issues.
forbes.com

40. of decision makers are facing
pressure to release IT projects that
are not security ready.
TRUSTWAVE.COM

41. Defend against email threats.
Deploy an email security service,
with multiple safeguards including
anti-spam, anti-malware and content
filtering capabilities.
Secure email traffic content.
Block or flag all executable files
and all suspicious orunusual file
attachments, such as .cpl, .chm and
.lnk files. Create alternative
methods for file sharing.
Ensure email security service
can handle blended threats that
combine spam with links to
malicious websites.
Educate users, from the bottom ranks
all the way up to the C-suite, on
the nature of today’s email attacks
and conduct mock phishing exercises.
Consider upgrading your IT
email defences with Blockmail.
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42. Unit 1, Block C, The Exchange
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Telephone: + 1 902 430 9340
Email:
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