According to the latest research by Agari, 50% of compromised accounts were accessed within 12 hours and 91% of all accounts were manually accessed by threat actors within the first week. Once attackers gained access to the compromised accounts, it became apparent that they wanted to identify high-value targets who have access to a company’s financial information or payment system so that they could send vendor email compromise scams more effectively.

<p>This latest research by Agari proves why organisations need to constantly remind staff about the importance of password security. The fact that half of the accounts compromised in phishing attacks are manually accessed within 12 hours of the username and password being leaked just proves how quick cybercriminals act. They don’t waste any time. <span lang=\"EN-US\"> </span><u></u><u></u></p> <p><span lang=\"EN-US\"> </span><u></u><u></u></p> <p>Creating a strong, safe password is paramount. Employees need to understand this is exactly why passwords should not be recycled as it puts the organisation and the individual at a high-risk of a data breach. Train employees to put in place multi-factor authentication, create different strong passwords for each login and never share your password with anyone.</p>