Be on guard, internet: Phishing cyberattacks and other social engineering exploits such as "vishing" (voice phishing) and "smishing" (SMS/text phishing), are on the rise, according to new data from cybersecurity firm Proofpoint.
For its fifth annual State of the Phish Report, released Thursday, the cybersecurity firm polled around 15,000 information security professionals around the world about their views of the threat landscape and experiences with phishing. Almost all of them (96 percent) said the rate of phishing attacks remained the same or increased in 2018.
Eighty-three percent of respondents said they experienced phishing attacks last year, up from 76 percent who said the same in 2017. Around half (49 percent) experienced vishing and/or smishing, up from 45 percent a year earlier, and 4 percent faced USB-based social engineering attacks via infected thumb drives, up from 3 percent.
Proofpoint also found that spear-phishing attacks, which target a specific individual or organization, are becoming more prevalent. Sixty-four percent of respondents faced these highly-targeted attacks last year, up from 53 percent in 2017.
"Email is the top cyberattack vector, and today's cybercriminals are persistently targeting high-value individuals who have privileged access or handle sensitive data within an organization," Proofpoint General Manager of Security Awareness Training Joe Ferrara said in a statement. "As these threats grow in scope and sophistication, it is critical that organizations prioritize security awareness training to educate employees about cybersecurity best practices and establish a people-centric strategy to defend against threat actors' unwavering focus on compromising end users."
To learn more, you can download Proofpoint's full report.
Meanwhile, if you're wondering how susceptible you are to falling victim to phishing, a new quiz from Jigsaw, a company under Google's parent Alphabet, can help you find out. The quiz presents you with eight example emails, and you have to determine whether they're phishing attacks or legitimate.