With the shift in the way we work, our communication methods too have changed drastically. As face-to-face communication fades away in the business world, email communication has gained momentum. Reports claim that around 94 percent of malware is delivered via email. Even a recent report by Barracuda reveals how scammers are getting access to email accounts, how they are using compromised accounts and defense strategies against the attacks for businesses.

Barracuda researchers along with UC Berkeley studies end-to-end lifecycle of a compromised account over the past year. They examined 159 compromised accounts that span 111 organizations and identified the ways account takeover happens, how long attackers have access to the compromised account and how attackers use and extract information from these accounts. According to the report, more than one-third of the hijacked accounts analyzed had attackers dwelling in the account for more than one week. Nearly 20 percent of compromised accounts appear in at least one online password data breach. This suggests that cybercriminals

are exploring credential reuse across employees’ personal and organizational accounts.

The report also reveals that in 31 percent of these compromises, one set of attackers focuses on compromising account and then sells account access to another set of cybercriminals who focus on monetizing the hijacked accounts. What a business though! The most surprising fact is that 78 percent of the attackers did not access any applications outside of email.

“Cybercriminals are getting stealthier and finding new ways to remain undetected in compromised accounts for long periods of time so they can maximize the ways they can exploit the account, whether that means selling the credentials or using the access themselves. Staying informed about the attackers’ behavior will help organizations remain vigilant and put the proper protection in place so they can defend themselves against these types of attacks and respond quickly if an account is compromised,” says Don MacLennan, SVP Engineering, Email Protection at Barracuda.

Another report claims that we lose around $1.48 billion to phishing. A lack of knowledge and awareness of email users about the risk and the punching capabilities of hackers to always find new ways to enter your email accounts are the two major reasons for this rise. Such phishing attempts sent to your email and phone via text message are the two most common ways users easily get hacked. Hence it’s pertinent that one opens any such text or click any such link with utmost precautious.

Anything lost to hackers can never be recovered as the dark web is really dark, and hence users need to be too smart to handle them.