A study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Valimail suggests that US Businesses are lacking in their anti-phishing measures.

The Ponemon institute surveyed 650 IT and IT security professionals whose daily jobs are to secure email applications and/or protect email users from threats.

Eighty percent of respondents are worried about their company’s ability to protect against phishing campaigns and how their company will respond to such an incident.  However, only 29 percent are taking steps to help mitigate the risk.  Thirty-nine percent of respondents believe their companies are spending enough money on the effort to protect against phishing attacks.

In addition, most respondents reported that they believe they have had a data breach within the last 12 months.

Some of the top concerns are hackers spoofing an email domain, getting hacked by a phishing email, and the state of the overall email security measures.  Additionally, only 41 percent of respondents said they have a plan for implementing security measures to protect their email systems.

Primarily, organizations use anti-spam and anti-phishing filters to protect against malicious emails, though about 15 percent of respondents aren’t using anything.  Automated solutions are helpful in that they are less expensive overall, but they aren’t always accurate or helpful.  Sometimes emails slip through those filters.  That’s where employee training is important.

While companies are averaging $2.5 million spent on email security and fraud protection each year, only 39 percent of respondents believe their company is spending enough on these measures.  Such protections include technology, personnel, and managed outsourced services.  Forty-five percent believe that a 20 percent increase in budget would significantly help to protect their organizations.

With the ever-increasing number of email breaches and phishing attacks, it’s no wonder companies and employees are stressing about this.  To learn what you can do to protect your organization, join HIPAAgps today.