https://www.mimecast.com/the-state-of-email-and-collaboration-security-2024

Human Risk and AI: Framing the Future

The need to address human risk management, email and phishing attacks, and generative AI among users across organizations of all types provides the backdrop for Mimecast’s SOECS 2024 report. Based on interviews with 1,100 CISOs and other information technology professionals from numerous industrial sectors and six countries, the report documents the precise nature of these risks and the steps that are being taken to overcome them.

Human Risk

Human risk and error are today’s biggest cybersecurity gap and remains largely unaddressed.

Email + Phishing Attacks

Email remains the number-one attack vector for cybercriminals, and phishing attacks are the top threat to email users.

Generative AI

The rise of phishing and ransomware is due to the emergence of generative AI, making it easier for threat actors to launch successful attacks.

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of all cyber breaches are caused by human factors

Nearly three-quarters of all cyber breaches are caused by human factors — errors, stolen credentials, misuse of access privileges or social engineering.

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of organizations experienced more email-based threats

Eight out of ten of those companies have been the victims of ransomware, while 75 percent state they paid the ransom.

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are concerned about new threats posed by AI

Generative AI eliminates many of the grammatical and spelling errors that were once easily spotted red flags in malicious emails.