You’re sitting at your workstation doing ordinary tasks when an attention-grabbing email shows up on your screen. It’s from jstratton@dellIogistics.com. You know exactly who that is. It’s Jill Stratton, and she works for a 3PL that often contracts with your company to transport loads for their clients.
The title of the email reads: “Urgent: Changed Bank Information Could Affect Invoice Payments.”
Jill isn’t the type to overdramatize things, so you figure this is something you need to get on right away. The message contains a link you can click to access and set up the new banking information. The last thing you need is payment delays.
You click.
Uh oh.
You quickly realize you’ve landed on a phishing site. You retrace your steps and take a closer look. The domain that was used for Dell Logistics snuck in a capital I where there should have been a capital L. It looked almost exactly the same, and it fooled you.
Now you need to immediately alert the IT department, and your boss, that the enterprise might be at risk of a cyberattack. You pray they can get it under control before any damage is done.
At least we can say this: You’re not alone. According to SlashNext, which provides services in the area of SaaS-based integrated cloud messaging security, there are 31,000 phishing emails sent every day. And one very familiar factor is making it much, much worse: There has been a 1,265 percent increase in malicious phishing emails since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
Yes, you read that right. More than a 12-fold increase in barely over a year. And 68 percent of all phishing emails are text-based business email compromise (BEC).
Download Now: Free 2024 Trucking Cybersecurity Trends Report
While phishing is only one cybersecurity issue confronting trucking companies, it is one of the highest-priorities to address–precisely because it requires training and education on the part of a company’s employees. In the scenario we presented above, it might already be too late by the time our employee realizes he or she has been duped. By the time the IT team can get on the case, the cyber crooks could already be extracting data, or corrupting the system, or setting up for a ransomware demand.
Often that includes using the enterprise access to launch attacks directly on the company’s over-the-road assets, which can end up crippled and incapable of transporting customer freight.
We covered the issue of BEC in a blog post a few months ago. We also offered related insight on phishing here, here, and here.
Additionally, we encourage you to download our new report on cybersecurity trends for 2024. In addition to dealing with the threat of phishing, it covers a wide range of topics including API security, asset security, new threats from AI and a variety of predictions from outside sources on trends for 2024.
This report is a critical tool for trucking companies who want to be prepared for cyberthreats in the coming year–and of course, that should be everyone in the industry.
Remember, if the trucking industry were to be taken down en masse by a cyberattack, it would lead to national economic collapse in a matter of days. Our industry is that vital. And only our own vigilance can stop that from happening.
Be prepared. Download the report today.
