Businesses need to do more to prevent themselves from phishing attacks, it has been suggested.
According to research conducted by Check Point, 48 per cent of enterprises have been victims of 25 or more social engineering attacks in the last two years.
The average cost of responding to such incidents has been estimated at £15,000 per company – highlighting the importance of ensuring robust security defences are in place.
Check Point discovered that the most common sources of social engineering threats are phishing emails (47 per cent) and social networking sites (39 per cent).
Employees (52 per cent) were found to be most susceptible to such attacks, ahead of contractors (44 per cent).
“Although the survey shows that nearly half of enterprises know they have experienced social engineering attacks, 41 per cent said they were unsure whether they had been targeted or not,” said Terry Greer-King, managing director at Check Point.
“Because these types of attacks are intended to stay below an organization’s security radar, the actual number that have been attacked could be much higher.”
He raised concerns that many companies are still doing little to educate their staff about the risks of social engineering attacks.