Security outfit SpamTitan has discovered that 70 per cent of companies believe their organization has been a victim of a spear phishing attack. Spear phishing is when an email is sent to one person or several people at a particular company which appears to come from a person of authority at the same company.

Ronan Kavanagh, CEO, SpamTitan.com said that the lack of proactive measures to deal with the attacks can cost companies financially through the loss of data and system downtime. Spear phishing is a growing issue where a targeted false email that appears to be legitimate is sent to individuals or a company in order to access data.

SpamTitan customers were asked if their company has ever experienced a spear phishing attack and if said attack had been reported to their IT department for treatment. Only 32 per cent of those who responded believed their organization had been exposed to a spear phishing attack but 70 per cent of those were unsure whether the incident had been reported to their IT department to deal with.

Kavanagh said that most people are now aware of various prevalent banking phishing scams or similar, spear phishing is another advanced attempt at a breach of security that appears legitimate. Kavanagh added that educating employees about a range of security issues was an important step that many companies ignore.