Enterprise mobile phishing up 37 percent in Q1 2020

According to the latest study from mobile security company Lookout, the first quarter of this year saw the enterprise mobile phishing encounter rate increase by 37.1 percent globally .

This includes regional increases of 66.3 percent in North America, 25.5 percent in EMEA and 27.7 percent in the Asia Pacific region.

The study also shows that unmitigated mobile phishing threats could cost organizations with 10,000 mobile devices as much as $35 million per incident, and up to $150 million for organizations with 50,000 mobile devices.

Highly regulated industries are the most targeted, with healthcare, professional services and financial services topping the list ahead of manufacturing and government.

"Smartphones and tablets are trusted devices that sit at the intersection of their owner's personal and professional identity," says David Richardson, vice president of product management at Lookout. "Cybercriminals are exploiting the ability to socially engineer victims on their mobile device in order to steal their credentials or sensitive private data."

With more people working away from the office, employees have turned to their smartphones and tablets to remain productive, but this opens up extra risks. Phishing attacks can be delivered by a wide variety of mobile apps including SMS, social media and messaging apps in addition to the more traditional email. The smaller form factor and simplified user experience on mobile devices also makes it harder to spot the tell-tale signs of a phishing link -- enabling a higher success rate for the cybercriminals attacking mobile as compared to desktop devices.

The full report is available from the Lookout site.

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