GEC NEWS WIREProofpoint released its tenth annual State of the Phish report, revealing that 83% of employees in the UAE knowingly put their organizations 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 globally, in the UAE, it is on the rise (92% of surveyed organizations in the UAE experienced at least one successful attack in 2023 versus 86% the previous year), the negative consequences have also soared: a 44% increase in reports of financial penalties, such as regulatory fines, and a 300% 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 organization, signalling a gap between the limitations of individual security technology and user education.
Emile Abou Saleh, Senior Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Proofpoint said “Employees must understand that they play a critical role in preventing data breaches, malware infections or financial loss and this isn’t just an IT problem. As traditional working models evolve, the old ways of protecting data no longer work. Collaboratively, organizations and staff must enhance their strategies, integrating controls for financial integrity, date loss and infection prevention to safeguard emails, endpoints, cloud applications, and web interfaces.”
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 organizations 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 behavior 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.
Key UAE findings from Proofpoint’s 2024 State of the Phish report include:
Employees aren’t taking risky actions because they lack security awareness: 86% of surveyed working 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. 97% of them did so knowing the inherent risks involved, meaning that 83% of employees in the UAE willingly undermined their organization’s security. The motivations behind risky actions are varied, with most employees citing convenience (32%), the desire to save time (46%), and a sense of urgency as their main reasons (31%).
Disconnect between IT teams and employees for driving real behavior change: While 90% of surveyed security professionals said that most employees know they are responsible for security, 38% 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 (97%) —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 behavior change. Security pros believe that more training (90%) and tighter controls (92%) are the answer, but nearly all surveyed employees (94%) said they’d prioritize 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 security professionals in the UAE still believe MFA provides complete protection against account takeover.
Business email compromise (BEC) attacks benefit from AI: In the UAE, 85% of organizations were targeted by BEC attacks in 2023 (up from 66% in 2022). Overall, fewer organizations reported email fraud attempts globally, but attack volume grew in countries such as Japan (35% year-over-year increase), South Korea (+31%), and the 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 personalized emails in multiple languages. Proofpoint detects an average of 66 million targeted BEC attacks every month.
Cyber extortion persists as lucrative form of attack: 77% of organizations in the UAE experienced a successful ransomware infection in the past year (up from 70% in 2022); alarmingly, 66% of IT professionals in the UAE said their organization experienced multiple, separate ransomware infections. Of the organizations impacted by ransomware, 80% agreed to pay attackers (up from 66%) with 66% regaining access to their data after a single payment (up from 61% 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. 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 organizations are not adequately prepared or trained to deal with them. Only 13% of organizations in the UAE educate their users on how to recognize and prevent TOAD attacks, and only 21% educate their users on generative AI safety.
“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 of Proofpoint. “Individuals play a central role in an organization’s security posture. While fostering a 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.”
