84 percent of US and UK organizations suffered spear phishing attacks

A recent survey conducted by Vanson Bourne reveals that more than 84% of respondents said a spear phishing attack had penetrated their organizations security defenses. The survey also found that respondents said approximately 28% of spear phishing attacks are getting through their organizations security defenses.

According to the data, 20% of respondents said spear phishing is the top threat facing their company, while 90% of respondents had seen spear phishing attacks delivered by email and 48% said their organization had seen spear phishing attacks delivered via mobile platforms, 40% had seem them delivered via social networks, and 30% had seen them delivered via social media.

Survey respondents estimated the financial impact of spear phishing to their organization to be more than USD 1.6 million over the past 12 months alone. For US businesses, the average cost was USD 1.8 million. Organizations that had been breached by spear phishing said the attacks resulted in loss of employee productivity (41%), financial loss (32%), damage to company reputation (29%), damage to brand reputation (27%), and a decrease in stock price (15%).

Only 11% of respondents said their organization is fully prepared to deal with spear phishing attacks. 56% of respondents said their organization is using staff training to deter spear phishing attacks, and 79% are testing employees responses to spear phishing. Among those who test their employees responses, only 3% said all employees passed the most recent test. On average, respondents said 16% of staff failed their organizations most recent spear phishing test.

Targets of spear phishing, according to the survey results, include IT staff (44%), finance staff (43%), sales staff (29%), CEO (27%), and CFO (17%).