Phishing: The leading cause of breaches
The findings also reveal the extent to which phishing attacks targeting user credentials continue to dominate as the primary source of security breaches, underscoring the need for robust policies around device health and user authentication.
When asked about the biggest security incident in the last 12 months that resulted in unauthorised access to corporate applications, nearly half of respondents reported phishing as the cause. The findings reveal:
- Phishing resulted twice as many breaches than malware (48 percent compared to 22 percent)
- Phishing resulted in more breaches than malware and unpatched systems combined (48 percent compared to 41 percent).
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Outdated devices are particularly vulnerable to being compromised, which can easily spiral into a full-blown, major breach,” Archdeacon added.