TRENDING the COVID-19 pandemic . When working from home , staff are no longer protected by corporate firewalls and other measures and are thus more susceptible to attacks .
Concerningly , more than half ( 51 %) of survey respondents admitted they had suffered a cybersecurity breach during the past 12 months , with a further 16 % saying this had occurred within the past year .
Phishing adds up as a top threat
Of the attacks that can be mounted via email , phishing remains the most dominant type experienced by Australian financial organizations . The increasing sophistication of cybercriminals means phishing emails can be very difficult to distinguish from legitimate messages .
Some can entice users to click on links and divulge personal information . Others come with attachments containing malicious code . Once opened , this code can rapidly infest the user ’ s device and then spread to wider corporate systems .
Of the survey respondents who admitted to having clicked on a malicious link within an email , almost half ( 48 %) said they realised their mistake when they found themselves redirected to a suspicious website or service that requested details from them .
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