New research from SoSafe: Cybersecurity threat landscape at most challenging point in the last five years

Cologne, 23 July 2024 – New research from SoSafe released today finds that 85% of security professionals in the UK agree that the threat landscape is the most challenging it has been in the past five years, and only 44% think the situation has a chance of improving in the next 12 months. It is clear that organisations are becoming overwhelmed by an alarming increase in cybercrime. 

The numbers come from SoSafe’s 2024 Human Risk Review on the current cyber threat landscape and corporate security culture. The report uses responses from more than 1,250 security leaders in Western Europe, along with 3.2 million data points from the SoSafe awareness and human risk management platform.   

One in every two security professionals have experienced a successful cyberattack in the last year, with 52% of respondents throughout Europe and 55% in the United Kingdom saying their company had been impacted. These attacks (and the threat of them) have serious consequences – ​​60% of security professionals say the risk of a cyberattack having a substantially negative impact on their organization is high. The survey shows that human vulnerability is seen as the most likely origin of successful cyberattack (36%) while Forrester predicts that this share will be as high as 90% in 2024, demonstrating the need for more holistic, behavioural-based approaches to transform employees into an active part of cyber defences. 

Dr Niklas Hellemann, psychologist and CEO of SoSafe, said: “Organisations are caught in a pincer movement, with threats rising from every angle. This current age of geopolitical instability is creating new motives and new opportunities for criminals and state actors to cause damage. With access to the latest, sophisticated AI-powered tools, attacks are coming in unexpected forms from unexpected plans. We must not underestimate the size and scale of this threat and empower people to confront it, helping organisations to establish the human layer as most versatile part of their security strategies.”

What’s behind the rising cyber risk  

The Human Risk Review finds three primary accelerators behind this increasingly dangerous environment: new technologies, global instability and interconnectivity: 

• AI can automate mass spear phishing campaigns, making them more efficient and easily translatable into multiple languages. It also increases the credibility of attacks through advanced techniques like voice cloning and deepfakes (as seen in a deepfake case in Hong Kong) and improves the quality of malicious content by reducing errors. Even non-professional users can use tools on the black market to create attacks at scale. Nearly four in five security leaders in the UK (84%) said that use of generative AI by cybercriminals was a concern, rising to 93% for organisations with more than 5,000 employees. Deepfake technology poses a significant risk to their organisation, according to 84% of respondents.  

• Rising global insecurity can create the conditions for accelerating cybercrime. Three in four (77%) security professionals agree that the geopolitical situation has increased the security risk of their organization. The current geopolitical climate increases vulnerability to attacks, as news stories and political moves provide opportunities for social engineering exploited by cybercriminals. It also leads to an increased complexity of the threat landscape, involving diverse threat actors, such as hacktivists, and attack motives. 

• The digital world is also ever-closer knit together, allowing more opportunities for cybercriminals to get in the middle of the increasingly connected world. Security increasingly relies on the actions of others, emphasizing that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. As a result, supply chain attacks are on the rise: 85% of security professionals said that supply chain security has become a more significant concern to them.

The social engineering basics still work despite technological advancement 

It’s not simply about AI – cybercriminals are using a mix of novel technology and “proven” techniques. Standard phishing emails, which have been around for decades, are still effective. At the beginning of a cyber training programme, SoSafe found that 37% of people click on harmful materials, with 38% of those continuing to interact with it past that click, for example by filling out malicious forms sharing personal data. Triggers related to authority, pressure or anxiety, and trust or intimacy have the highest click rates. The most successful subject line of simulated phishing mails was “payroll accounting error”, triggering pressure and anxiety, with a click rate of 62%. 

SoSafe found the five most common types of attacks cited by companies are phishing, malware, DDoS, ransomware, and social engineering attacks beyond phishing and vishing. It is interesting to note, however, that more “sophisticated” attacks such as malware and ransomware usually (80% of the time) start as phishing or other types of human manipulation. 

Attacks are increasingly multi-channel. This year SoSafe measured QR codes, supply chain or third-party vendors, and physical security breaches as growing threat vectors – all of which are being used by cybercriminals. Email is the most popular channel for phishing attacks, but its domination is ebbing (moving from 61% to 51% from 2022 to 2023) as this diversification grows.  

Andrew Rose, Chief Security Officer of SoSafe, said: “Cyber criminals will focus on what works. That generally is a mix of the ‘tried-and-true’ along with novel ways of trying to accelerate, personalise and scale their attacks. Employees need to be taught a mix of good foundations that will still be valid as threats evolve, along with ‘security instincts’ that will help them to react to new, evolving attacks as cybercriminals adapt.”

How organisations are reacting

While strong technical security measures are essential, they alone cannot protect against the tactics of modern cybercriminals. The workforce must be strengthened by tapping into an organisation’s greatest resource – its employees. 94% of security professionals in the UK said building a security culture in their organisation is a key priority. 

The executive board and senior leadership are increasingly engaged with these decisions. Essentially every organisation (99% of respondents) said that senior executives and the board are involved in cyber security governance and decision-making. Three in four UK respondents said focus on security increased over the last three years (73%), compared to 58% of all respondents, and that cyber security is a core component of their business strategy (67%).

Three in four (74%) of organisations increased their cybersecurity budget in the last two years, with 52% doing so due to the growing threat landscape and technological advancements, and 42% following incidents or breaches.

Dr Niklas Hellemann said: “The human-centric approach to cybersecurity is neither novel nor untested. We’ve worked with thousands of companies over a number of years. It’s affirmed what I’ve known since the company’s foundation: a behavioural approach to sustainably mitigate human risk and empower employees works. In only a year, our customers increased reporting rates up to 147 percent which is a clear indication of established proactive security cultures. Together with our customers, we’ve created thousands of ‘cyberheroes,’ who feel confident about their ability to be a part of a human-layer of defense and know that this cohort will only grow in the face of today’s challenges.”

For more information, see the Human Risk Review 2024.   

About SoSafe

SoSafe, founded by a team of behavioural scientists and technology experts, is the largest security awareness and human risk management vendor based in Europe. SoSafe is empowering over 4,700 customers worldwide to effectively mitigate cyber risk. With a unique human-centric approach grounded in behavioural science, SoSafe enhances secure behaviour across organizations, making it intuitive and second nature. The platform is designed to strengthen digital self-defence by creating robust security cultures that actively involve employees in mitigating human risks. By leveraging psychology and advanced technology and AI, it enables security professionals to effectively identify, prioritize, manage, and ultimately reduce their human risk. The SoSafe team now consists of more than 500 employees in nine locations: Cologne (headquarters), Amsterdam, Berlin, Chemnitz, Dublin, London, Paris, Lisbon, and Munich.  

Website: www.sosafe-awareness.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/sosafe-cyber-security/mycompany/