Email Security Blog

CellPhish: How Mobile Devices Are Making Companies Vulnerable to Hackers

If you’ve owned a cell phone for any amount of time, chances are you’ve been a victim of some type of cyber fraud attempt. Perhaps you’ve received a text indicating that your banking credentials need to be verified. Maybe you’ve received a phone call someone claiming to represent your credit card company offering to lower your rates. There are thousands of stories cybercriminals will try to sell you in order to get control of your most valuable account information.

But what well is your business protected from the threats targeting mobile devices? Do your employees access company email accounts from their mobile devices? Are they accessing your company email servers? Are they synching files and using mobile devices for remote cloud computing services? The rise in the number of remote workers has made many companies prime targets for new and sophisticated phishing scams. Unfortunately, when it comes to mobile devices, business email security is often overlooked – yet the potential steal company funds and data is very real. Here are just a few of the possible scenarios:

  • Credential Harvesting – Probably the most dangerous email phishing threat posed to companies with mobile devices, fraudulent phishing emails prompt users to log into a phony look-a-like websites and enter their log-in credentials. In an instant, the hacker has captured an employee sign-on and can access to a myriad of company files and finances.
  • Business Email Compromise (BEC) – Each year, companies lose billions of dollars from this phishing threat when cybercriminals convince recipients to wire funds.
  • Spear Phishing – Hackers gather a lot of great intel from social media accounts. Using the name of your boss or a company executive, spear phishing emails impersonate a business associate. It’s a very convincing way to get anything from gift cards to paid invoices and more.
  • Malware – 94% of malware is delivered through phishing emails.1 When viewed on mobile devices, it’s harder to detect the sender’s true identity.
  • Account Take Over – Many phishing emails result in your email account being taken over by a cybercriminal. In fact, hackers are getting so sophisticated that some can even override one-time password (OTP) securities.

In 2019, 27% of all organizations globally were impacted by cyber attacks that involved a mobile device.2 Additionally, data shows that users are three times more likely to fall for a phishing link when presented on the small screens of mobile devices rather than when presented on the screens of desktop OS, like Windows or macOS.3 That’s a very frightening thought.

Regardless of how secure you think your office might be, your virtual workforce puts your company at risk if their mobile devices don’t benefit from the same email security service as they do when using computers in the office. As a business owner or manager, it’s up to you to make sure that your company has the protection in place it needs to never fall victim to a phishing threat launched on a mobile device.

INKY® is one of the only anti-phishing solutions that can protect you in the office and on the go. INKY is relentlessly effective―detecting and blocking things virus protection software cannot. It is also uniquely intelligent―using real-time learning to understand sender and user profiles and prevent phishing. Simple to set up, INKY integrates seamlessly with any email platform to keep your employees, customers, and data safe and secure. Schedule your free demonstration today.

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INKY® is the emerging hero in the war against phishing. An award-winning cloud-based email security solution, INKY® prevents the most complex phishing threats from disrupting or even immobilizing your company’s day-to-day business operations. Using computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, INKY® is the smartest investment you can make in the security of your organization. INKY® is a proud winner of the NYCx Cybersecurity Moonshot Challenge and finalist in the 2020 RSAC Innovation Sandbox Competition. Learn more about INKY® or request an online demonstration today.


1Source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3153707/top-cybersecurity-facts-figures-and-statistics.html 
2Source: https://www.ntsc.org/assets/pdfs/cyber-security-report-2020.pdf 
3Source: https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/security-essentials/mobile-phishing