How Email Became the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity

When did email become the weakest security link? Email was never intended to transmit sensitive information, but as with all technologies people began using it differently than it was intended to be used and it wasn’t long before hackers learned they could send malicious links and malware directly to a person’s computer via email. These days we know that email can contain malicious links, but we aren’t always trained to spot them, and sometimes we assume the spam filters will take care of it for us. Email has become the weakest link, and it’s costing businesses big time.

The average employee received five phishing emails a week, and sometimes they can be very convincing. The most successful phishing emails contain subject lines designed to scare or jolt us into action. Phrases like ‘open enrollment’ and ‘grievance filed’ can make us believe something needs our immediate attention, which hackers rely on. 

Almost a third of phishing emails make it past default security, and from 2013 to 2016 cyber attacks cost businesses $5 billion globally. The average malware attack can cost $2.4 million to clean up, and the average spear phishing attack can cost as much as $7.2 million to mitigate.

Learn more about the prevalence of email phishing as well as what can be done to stop it: