Email security specialist Libraesva has released its ‘Email Security: The Reality Gap’ report, which reveals that over half (55%) of US IT and security professionals surveyed are not prioritizing email as a source of attack to secure their organization against. This is despite 88% of respondents reporting that their organization had experienced a successful attack in the last quarter, and that email was the leading entry point that attacks had increased from.
The research was carried out by Censuswide in April 2024 who surveyed 526 US CISOs, security and IT professionals aged 18+ in companies with 500-5,000 employees.
Other key findings from the survey include:
Spend gap: half of US IT and security professionals surveyed (51%) said that their organization’s budgets for email security for last year stayed the same or decreased.
Talent gap: Over 3 in 5 (63%) respondents agreed that email security resource is understaffed in their organization. When asked about skillset, 62% agreed that they lacked email security resources with the right skills and over half (55%) agreed that they faced challenges in finding the talent to deal with evolving email threats, yet almost two-thirds (64%) recognized that this gap is leaving them more vulnerable to threats.
Technology gap: the top five email related threats US IT and security professionals surveyed stated that they are most concerned about were:
- Malware and spam (33%)
- Ransomware (26%)
- Email data leaks (26%)
- Malicious URLs and dangerous attachments (26%)
- Phishing, spear phishing and whaling (25%)
But when asked if their current email security system protects against these threats only just over 2 in 5 (43%) said they were confident when it comes to email data leaks, only 42% on malware and spam, and under 2 in 5 were confident on it defending against threats from ransomware (35%), malicious URLs and dangerous attachments (38%), and phishing, spear phishing and whaling (36%).
Also of note was that while almost a quarter of the survey (23%) said they were concerned about AI attacks, 71% lacked confidence that their current email security system could defend against such attacks.
Commenting on the findings, Paolo Frizzi, Founder and CEO, Libraesva said: “Modern business relies on email making its security business-critical, but it is a battleground for bad actors and the volume and complexity of attacks is ever increasing. Our report shows that despite US CISOs, security and IT professionals experiencing increases in attacks from email and being aware of the risks, they aren’t prioritizing email sufficiently in their security strategies, with alarming gaps that need to be plugged in terms of budget, resource and technology. Not only are they vulnerable to established email threats, but they are also unprepared for the wave of advancing AI-generated attacks. US businesses should take action now to shore up their defenses or risk the damage from ever growing attacks.”
