GreatHorn analyzed more than 56 million emails from 91,500 corporate mailboxes from March to November 2016 . The data found that display name spoofs are the clear phishing weapon of choice for cybercriminals . Attackers are increasingly relying on highly targeted , non-payload attacks that exploit trust and leverage pressure tactics to trick Attack.Phishing users into taking action that will put their organizations at risk . Of the more than 537,000 phishing threats Attack.Phishing GreatHorn detected in its research , 91 percent ( 490,557 ) contained characteristics of display name spoofs . Display name spoofs impersonate Attack.Phishing a person familiar to a business user in order to fool Attack.Phishing the recipient into thinking that the message came from Attack.Phishing a trusted source . It ’ s an extremely effective tactic against a workforce deluged with incoming communications all day , every day . Direct spoofs were the second most popular attack type ( 8 percent ) , and domain lookalikes made up less than 1 percent of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing . “ Stopping spear phishing attacks Attack.Phishing isn ’ t as simple as pushing a button ; the sheer volume of these attacks , coupled with the size of the attacks surface and security resource constraints , makes it impossible to mitigate risk solely via human intervention , no matter how much you try to train your end users , ” said GreatHorn CEO Kevin O ’ Brien

Democrats in Pennsylvania ’ s state Senate were locked out of their computer network early Friday morning due to a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , NBC News reports . According to an unidentified state official who spoke with NBC , the Democratic senators in Harrisburg use their own computer network and “ there is no indication that other state agencies of the Republicans have been affected ” . As of about 5 p.m. Friday , both law enforcement agencies and Microsoft were working with the state Democrats to free their network . In a statement sent to reporters via text message and obtained by The Hill , state party officials said , “ there is currently no indication that the caucus system was targeted or that any data has been compromised Attack.Databreach ” . Recently , ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom have struck everywhere from hospitals and universities to San Francisco ’ s transit system . Last summer , the congressional IT desk warned representatives in Washington DC to be careful of potential ransomware and phishing threats Attack.Phishing , but the hacks on the DNC were unrelated . In many cases , the payment demanded Attack.Ransom is only in the tens of thousands of dollars , and occasionally ransomware can be spammed without a specific target , but the affected computer systems are encrypted and inaccessible until the hackers release a key . If a network ’ s data is backed up offsite , the target can occasionally circumvent the ransom Attack.Ransom altogether — albeit with some increased security . A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Democrats declined to say to NBC News whether that was possible in this case , or whether the attackers had revealed any motives