“As will be detailed further in Proofpoint’s upcoming report, The Human Factor, cybercriminals are increasingly choosing human exploitation over technical exploits. Personal weaknesses are being leveraged in an unprecedented way-and at a scale never seen before.

The recent publicized compromises are most likely the only a fraction of the multi-million-message malicious email campaign earlier this week where the Dridex actors leveraged their botnet to distribute the new ransomware Proofpoint uncovered, ‘Locky’. We expect this trend to continue: people are the weakest link in cybersecurity, and will be used as unwitting pawns to download malicious apps and run code, hand over key credentials, and fraudulently wire money on attackers’ behalf.”