Phishing is today’s biggest threat to businesses. In 2020, phishing email rose by more than 660 percent, thanks to a perfect storm of circumstances on which cybercriminals were quick to capitalize. This led to a deluge of dangerous messages landing in the inboxes of pandemic-stressed employees — and they clicked far too many of them. How can companies secure their systems and data against the impact of cyberattacks that prey on human error, social engineering, fear, stress and exhaustion in times of trouble? By investing in smart artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Human Error is a Major Risk in Stressful Times
Human error is perpetually the No. 1 cause of cybersecurity disasters. Throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic, this weakness became increasingly apparent as companies rapidly moved to fully remote work and employees had to play catch up. In a survey of IT leaders, 71 percent felt that their company was well-positioned against cyberattacks before the pandemic, but that number plummeted to 44 percent by fourth-quarter 2020.
The chaos that arrived in the wake of the global pandemic left many openings for cybercriminals to exploit through social engineering. For many employees, the seismic shift in work was complicated by childcare concerns, remote schooling and pandemic anxiety. In a comprehensive study of 1,000 remote workers, 43 percent of employees reported that they had made mistakes resulting in cybersecurity repercussions for themselves or their company while working remotely — and more than 45 percent of those workers cited failing to spot a phishing attempt as one of those mistakes.
AI is Always on and Always Unflappable
This is where AI shines as a clutch performer. AI doesn’t get tired, stressed, or distracted. AI doesn't accidentally click on phishing emails. Companies that adopt AI technology have an advantage. Employees may be thrown off their game because of tumultuous conditions, but AI is unaffected and continues to perform efficiently and effectively in any conditions.
Smart phishing defense AI takes this a step further and keeps your business safe by learning and growing on its own. It stops new threats to your business continuously without adjustments or updates by IT staffers, reducing their stress in times of trouble.
AI also outperforms traditional secure email gateways (SEGs) at every turn. Automated phishing protection solutions integrate at the API level to detect sophisticated social engineering attacks. In contrast, old-fashioned SEGs were built to stop spam and malicious emails, and they can’t detect the tricky language that cybercriminals use to bypass them. AI also has the advantage against Zero Day attacks because SEGs require manual updates with traditional threat intelligence to detect attacks, leaving employee email inboxes vulnerable to new attack formats longer, especially when IT teams are overburdened.
Choose AI for an Automatically More Secure Future
The advantages of AI technology aren’t just something that’s available to mega corporations. Today’s AI cybersecurity solutions are both affordable and easy to deploy, making them accessible to organizations of any size. Smart solutions like automated phishing defense, are within reach for every business. They perfect choice to make sure that your company is ready for anything. Learn more at https://www.graphus.ai/.
Guest blog courtesy of Graphus, a Kaseya company. Read more Kaseya guest blogs here.
