People continue to be the most critical factor in today’s cyberattacks
Proofpoint, Inc. unveiled its annual Human Factor report, which provides a comprehensive examination of the three main facets of user risk—vulnerability, attacks, and privilege—and how the extraordinary events of 2020 transformed the current threat landscape. Human Factor 2021 draws on data and insight from a year’s worth of research, covering threats detected, mitigated, and resolved across one of the largest datasets in cybersecurity.
“Attackers don’t hack in, they log in, and people continue to be the most critical factor in today’s [cyberattacks]. The threat ecosystem has evolved over the past year, and this report explores how a people-centric approach to cybersecurity can reduce today’s risks,” said Ryan Kalember, EVP of cybersecurity strategy, Proofpoint. “In addition to troubling growth in volume and sophistication of ransomware and business email compromise (BEC) attacks, we discovered massive spikes in lesser-known methods like CAPTCHA techniques and steganography, which proved surprisingly effective.”