LRQA Nettitude Blog

Phishing attacks are one of the most common methods of cybersecurity attack, with 2023 witnessing a record of around 4.7 million attacks logged by a single source. It is estimated that around 3.4 billion spam messages are sent each day and the rate of growth has been approximately 150% year-on-year since 2019 with predictions that 2024 will be even higher.

Despite the numerous messaging apps available, email remains the most used method of formal communication. This is because email is still associated with professionalism. However, as emails are preferred among businesses, this also makes them an ideal target for cybercriminals. 

Most data breaches occur for an economic reason—the attacker hopes to profit from the information they gain access to. Emails contain a lot of personal information already and can also be used to access other vital systems. This makes them an ideal entry point for hackers with varying motives.

Virtually every modern organisation relies on the internet and connected devices to communicate with customers, operate internal processes, and deliver its services. However, the digital remnants left behind from these activities – known as your digital footprint – can give hackers and malicious users the information they need to compromise your operations. 

So, what can you do to protect yourself? An expert team like Nettitude can assess these ‘electronic breadcrumbs’ to identify exposed business-critical information and safeguard it against cyber threats. Here, we explore how organisations must limit the information shared online while explaining how it can be used against them.

A pretext is designed to convince a target to divulge information to an attacker. This information could include, but is not limited to, requests for company documents, user credentials, and personally identifiable information. A successful pretext convinces the target that a request is legitimate and the information being asked for is reasonable.