Energy industry hit by surge in mobile phishing threats

Energy organizations provide infrastructure that's essential for the safety and well being of society, but recent events like the Colonial Pipeline breach demonstrate that the industry is particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

A new report on energy industry threats finds that 20 percent of energy employees have been exposed to a mobile phishing attack in the first half of 2021, a 161 percent increase from the second half of 2020.

The study from Lookout also reveals that 17.2 percent of all cyberattacks originating on mobile endpoints targeted energy organizations, making the industry the biggest target of cybercriminals and nation-state sponsored attackers.

"As the energy industry modernizes and relies more heavily on mobile devices and cloud solutions, these insights into mobile phishing and app threats can help organizations strengthen their security program," says Stephen Banda, senior manager of security solutions at Lookout and the author of the report. "We recommend organizations train employees about the dangers of mobile phishing attacks and have dedicated solutions in place to secure against them. They also need visibility into mobile app and operating system vulnerabilities to safeguard corporate data."

The average mobile app threat exposure rate was 7.6 percent -- nearly double the average of all other industries combined. Also 56 percent of Android users were exposed to nearly three hundred exploitable vulnerabilities by continuing to run out-of-date versions of the OS.

Riskware and vulnerabilities were at the heart of 95 percent of mobile app threats, while EMEA and APAC employees ware 41 percent and 18 percent more likely to experience a mobile phishing attack than their North American peers.

You can get the full report from the Lookout site.

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