"IT, Healthcare, and Manufacturing Facing Most Phishing Attacks"

Researchers at the email and collaboration security firm Avanan analyzed over 905 million emails for the 1H 2021 Global Phish Cyber Attack Report. The company discovered that their customers in the IT, healthcare, and manufacturing industries are most targeted by phishing attacks. The researchers found 9,000 phishing emails targeting the IT industry in a one-month span out of almost 400,000 total emails. Avanan's healthcare industry customers saw over 6,000 phishing emails in one month out of an average of more than 450,000 emails. Their manufacturing customers saw a little less than 6,000 phishing emails out of nearly 330,000 total emails. The Avanan researchers believe these industries are attractive targets for phishing attacks because of the massive amount of data they collect and the continued use of outdated technology that provides points for attack. Most phishing attacks were found to involve either impersonation or credential harvesting. Over 50 percent of all phishing attacks involve credential harvesting, which is almost a 15 percent increase since 2019. Nearly 20 percent of all phishing attacks are associated with Business Email Compromise (BEC). The report revealed that non-executive accounts are targeted 77 percent more than other accounts, with almost 52 percent of all impersonation emails appearing to be from a non-executive account at an enterprise. This article continues to discuss additional findings from Avanan regarding phishing attacks in the first half of 2021. 

ZDNet reports "IT, Healthcare, and Manufacturing Facing Most Phishing Attacks"