Proofpoint, Inc., a cybersecurity and compliance company, has released its annual Human Factor report, which provides a comprehensive examination of the three main facets of user risk—vulnerability, attacks, and privilege—as well as how threat actors continue their ceaseless creativity in exploiting the many opportunities presented by people.
The Human Factor 2022 report delves deeply into user risk, drawing on data and insight from a year’s worth of research, covering threats detected, mitigated, and resolved across one of cybersecurity‘s largest datasets.
“One constant that remains as organizations approach a sense of normalcy after a disruptive year is that cyber criminals continue to target and exploit people,” said Ryan Kalember, EVP of cybersecurity strategy, Proofpoint. “Last year attackers demonstrated just how unscrupulous they really are, making protecting people from cyber threats an ongoing—and often eye-opening—challenge for organizations.”
The report is based on a multitrillion-datapoint graph, one of the most comprehensive data sets in cybersecurity. Proofpoint analyzes over 2.6 billion email messages, 49 billion URLs, 1.9 billion attachments, 28.2 million cloud accounts, 1.7 billion mobile messages, and other data every day. This report analyzes data collected throughout 2021 to shed light on the nature of today’s cyber threats while providing actionable insight into how to protect employees from them.
Emile Abou Saleh, Regional Director, Middle East & Africa at Proofpoint, added: “According to our recent Voice of the CISO Report, almost half of all surveyed UAE CISOs feel their organization is at risk of suffering a material cyber-attack in the next 12 months. To mitigate such risks, organizations will have to be highly vigilant of cyber threats targeting today’s distributed, hybrid workforce. To fully defend organisations, CISOs need to address threat protection, data security and invest in technologies, in-house expertise, user training and awareness programs that put employees at the core of their strategy.”
Key findings highlighted in Proofpoint’s 2022 Human Factor report include: