Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders around the world have forced businesses to rapidly move to remote work arrangements for safety. Now we’re seeing a wave of attacks by cybercriminals breaking into video conferences, hijacking employees’ devices and phishing for login credentials.
All of these attacks can disrupt business operations, but the account takeover attempts may be the most troubling. A phishing email that leads to the takeover of even one account can fuel data breaches, espionage, identity theft, ransom attacks, and e-commerce and financial fraud.
Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 32% of all reported breaches involved phishing and 29% involved stolen credentials. The collaboration apps many companies use now, and the sheer number of employees suddenly working from home, give organized criminals a variety of ways to steal credentials and data.