Every year the FBI compiles stats on malware and ransomware. It’s a long report and I’ve linked to it at the bottom of this blog, but to make things easy, I cut out some interesting graphs that I’ll add below. I think these few graphs tell a very compelling story but without the need for long blocks of explanation text.
We all know that malware is paying off already, but here are the numbers.
LOOK AT PHISHING! So many cases of email scams.
Look at Phishing/Spoofing. Once again, email is THE target.
In 2021, 90% of ALL ATTACKS originated from an email scam. I’m not sure what it is today, but email is clearly still the place to be for attackers.
But why is email such a target?
Email is a gold mine. When you have someone’s email you know their bank, credit cards, family, business contacts, vendors, etc. Many online services do password resets to your email. It’s just so easy to move from email to any other scam.
So, what do I do?
- What email do you use? Pretend it’s Microsoft 365. Go to a browser and type in “Enable MFA on Microsoft 365”. Follow these instructions. If you use Gmail, then search for this, “Enable MFA on Gmail”.
There are many other safeguards that can be put in place like spam filters and fake email training campaigns and content filters for email links, but MFA is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT security safeguard that exists today. Just do it! 😊
This is a link to the IC3 homepage:
Internet Crime Complaint Center(IC3) | Home Page
Here is a link directly to the IC3.gov 2023 Crime Report PDF:
2023_IC3Report.pdf