Phishing, spearphishing, CEO Fraud/Business Email Compromise (BEC) and
ransomware represent a group of critical security threats that virtually every
organization will encounter at some point – and most already have. While phishing
actually started in the 1995-1996 time frame, it became a much more serious
problem in the mid-2000s. The logical evolution of phishing – spearphishing (targeted
against a group, a company or individuals within that company) and CEO Fraud/BEC
(which targets senior executives within a single company) – are increasing rapidly
and costing organizations hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Add to this the
fact that ransomware is reaching epidemic proportions and increasing at an even
faster pace, growing from an impact of “just” $24 million in 2015, but increasing to
approximately $1 billion in 2016i.