Phishing, which can be considered the delivery mechanism for various types of malware and cybercrime attempts; and ransomware, which is a specialized form of malware that is designed for the sole purpose of extorting money from victims, are critical problems that every organization must address and through a variety of means: user education, security solutions, vulnerability analysis, threat intelligence, good backup processes, and even common sense. The good news is that there is much that organizations can do to protect themselves, their data, their employees and their customers.

Phishing, particularly highly targeted forms of phishing like spearphishing and CEO Fraud/Business Email Compromise (BEC), as well as ransomware, are the logical evolution of cybercrime. Because there have been so many data breaches over the past few years that have resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of records, there is a glut of this information on the market. The result, as there would be in any other business driven by the economics of supply and demand, is that prices for stolen records are dropping precipitously: a leading security firm estimates that the price of a stolen payment-card record has decreased from $25 in 2011 to just $6 in 2016.

Consequently, cybercriminals are turning increasingly to more direct means of theft. For example, ransomware will extort money directly from victims without requiring stolen data to be sold on the open market where it is subject to economic forces that can reduce its value. CEO Fraud/BEC can net hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in a short period of time by getting victims to wire funds directly.

We are in the process of writing a white paper on phishing and ransomware, and will be publishing the results of an in-depth survey on these problems. Let us know if you have any questions or would like copy of the white paper when it is published next week.