Cost of a Phishing Attack

Gartner Survey On The Cost of Phishing Attacks

Although a few years old, a survey from Gartner shows the cost of phishing attacks. The threat to business and consumers is substantial. Since the survey was completed, there has been no letup on the volume of social engineering attacks, including phishing. The Anti-Phishing Working Group recently reported a record 1.1 million phishing attacks were logged in the second quarter of 2022 alone. That's more phishing attacks than in any single quarter in the APWG's history. As such, the information provided by the Gartner study on phishing is still relevant. Below are some of the key facts from the study.

Phishing attacks cost businesses $3.2 billion in losses.
3.6 million adults lost money in phishing attacks
11% of online adults say they don’t use any security software
Of consumers who received phishing emails, 3.3% say they lost money because of the attack
The average dollar loss per incident was $886
Of those consumers who lost money to phishing attacks, 47% said a debit or credit card had been the payment method used