Internet Identity

With recent security breaches at Sony, marketer Epsilon and others leading to millions of people’s personal information being stolen, IID asked our customers what the resulting fallout might be. The survey that included a large government organization, major online brands, and large and small banks revealed that many are concerned about spear phishing resulting from these recent breaches.

More than 85% of respondents acknowledged some concern about spear phishing, with 33% saying that they are “extremely concerned.”

Though only 12.5% reported having been the victim of spear phishing in the past 30 days, fully half of all respondents reported that their organizations had been victimized by spear phishing in the past 12 months.

As the criminals in possession of the data stolen in those recent breaches have opportunities to put it to use, IID expects to see a rise in the number of organizations seeing spear phishing targeting their employees. Respondents of our survey seem already to understand the importance of employee education for just this reason; 87% report that their organizations are making use of employee education campaigns to help fend off any spear phishing threats that may occur. In addition, 30% plan to implement new technology solutions in the coming year. Perhaps surprisingly though, given all the attention spear phishing has received of late, 26% report no new plans for protecting against potential spear phishing attacks.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this survey. If you would like to contribute to future IID surveys and are not currently on our invite list, please email us at activefeedback@internetidentity.com.