Proofpoint has released its tenth annual State of the Phish report, revealing that more than two-thirds (69%) of employees knowingly put their organisations at risk, potentially leading to ransomware or malware infections, data breaches, or financial loss. And while the incidence of successful phishing attacks has slightly declined (68% of surveyed organisations experienced at least one successful attack in 2023 versus 72% the previous year), the negative consequences have soared: a 449% increase in reports of financial penalties, such as regulatory fines, and a 18% increase in reports of reputational damage.
The findings from this year’s report notably challenge the traditional belief that people take risky actions due to a lack of cybersecurity knowledge and that security awareness training alone can fully prevent unsafe behaviours.
The conundrum extends to security professionals’ belief that most employees know they are responsible for protecting the organisation, signalling a gap between the limitations of individual security technology and user education.
Jennifer Cheng, director, cybersecurity strategy for Asia Pacific and Japan, Proofpoint, said: “Our research shows that the primary factor contributing to risky behaviour online is convenience. In fact, among 14 countries surveyed, Singapore users actually value convenience the most. This explains why 7 in 10 users still choose to take risks despite 99% understanding that these actions might compromise their organisation’s safety.”
This year’s State of the Phish report provides an in-depth overview of the current threat landscape where generative AI, QR codes, and multifactor authentication (MFA) are abused by malicious actors, as sourced by Proofpoint’s telemetry of more than 2.8 trillion scanned emails across 230,000 organisations worldwide, as well as findings from 183 million simulated phishing attacks sent over a twelve-month period.
The report also examines the perceptions of 7,500 employees and 1,050 security professionals across 15 countries, showing how attitudes towards security manifest in real-world behaviour and how threat actors are finding new ways to take advantage of our preference for speed and expedience, as well as the current state of security awareness initiatives.
“Cybercriminals know that humans can be easily exploited, either through negligence, compromised identity—or in some instances—malicious intent,” said Ryan Kalember, chief strategy officer, Proofpoint. “Individuals play a central role in an organisation’s security posture, with 74% of breaches still centering on the human element. While fostering security culture is important, training alone is not a silver bullet. Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. The challenge is now not just awareness, but behaviour change.”
Key Singapore findings from Proofpoint’s 2024 State of the Phish report include:
Employees aren’t taking risky actions because they lack security awareness: 70% of surveyed working Singaporean adults admitted to taking risky actions, such as reusing or sharing a password, clicking on links from unknown senders, or handing over their credentials to an untrustworthy source. 99% of them did so knowing the inherent risks involved, meaning that 69% of employees willingly undermined their organisation’s security. The motivations behind risky actions are varied, with most employees citing convenience (64%), the desire to save time (41%), and a sense of urgency as their main reasons (28%).
Disconnect between IT teams and employees for driving real behaviour change: While 86% of surveyed Singaporean security professionals said that most employees know they are responsible for security, 60% of surveyed employees either weren’t sure or claimed that they’re not responsible at all. And even though virtually all employees who took a risky action knew the inherent risks—a clear indication security training is working to drive employee awareness—there are clear disparities between what security professionals and employees think is effective to encourage real behaviour change. Security pros believe that more training (91%) and tighter controls (73%) are the answer, but nearly all surveyed employees (95%) said they’d prioritise security if controls were simplified and more user-friendly.
MFA continues to provide a false sense of security, leaving businesses exposed: Over one million attacks are launched with the MFA-bypass framework EvilProxy every month, yet, worryingly, 94% of Singaporean security professionals still believe MFA provides complete protection against account takeover.
Business email compromise (BEC) attacks benefit from AI: Fewer organisations reported email fraud attempts globally, but attack volume grew in countries such as Japan (35% year-over-year increase), South Korea (+31%), and UAE (+29%). These countries may have previously seen fewer BEC attacks due to cultural or language barriers, but generative AI allows attackers to create more convincing and personalised emails in multiple languages. Proofpoint detects an average of 66 million targeted BEC attacks every month.
Cyber extortion persists as a lucrative form of attack: In Singapore, 66% of organisations experienced a successful ransomware infection in the past year (a slight 3-percentage point decrease year-over-year); alarmingly, 64% of Singaporean IT professionals said their organisation experienced multiple, separate ransomware infections. Of the organisations impacted by ransomware, 61% agreed to pay attackers (down from 71%), with 70% regaining access to their data after a single payment (up from 58% a year ago).
Telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) continues to flourish: Although initially appearing as a benign message containing nothing more than a phone number and some erroneous information, the attack chain is activated when an unsuspecting employee calls a fraudulent call centre, providing their credentials or granting remote access to malicious actors. Globally, Proofpoint detects 10 million TOAD attacks per month, on average, with a recent peak in August 2023, which drew 13 million incidents.
Despite the growing prominence and sophistication of threats such as ransomware, TOAD and MFA bypass, many organisations are not adequately prepared or trained to deal with them. Only 26% of organisations educate their users on how to recognise and prevent TOAD attacks, and only 28% educate their users on generative AI safety.
You can read the full report here.
