Commissioned by IRONSCALES
Published March 2024
Executive summary
A striking paradox lies at the heart of modern email security. Despite high levels of confidence among organizations in their defensive capabilities and in their employees’ and executives’ ability to spot phishing emails, image-based and QR code phishing attacks continue to breach their defenses with unsettling frequency. This discrepancy between the perceived effectiveness of security protocols and the reality of ongoing infiltrations underscores a concerning gap in current cybersecurity strategies. As these emerging attacks grow increasingly complex, the need for a comprehensive reassessment of email security approaches becomes more urgent, challenging organizations to bridge the confidence-security paradox with immediate technical and training improvements.
Key insight:
- While over 70% of organizations feel their current stack is effective against image-based and QR code phishing attacks, nearly 76% were still compromised within past 12 months.
