The fact that 70% of data breaches start with phishing made me rethink my whole setup

I was just reading through a report from Verizon's 2023 Data Breach Investigations and that stat jumped out at me. I always figured most hacks came from fancy software exploits or someone brute forcing a password. But nope, it's just people clicking bad links in emails. That makes me wonder if all the money I spent on a premium VPN and encrypted cloud storage was even worth it. On one hand, those tools still protect against other stuff like public WiFi snooping. But on the other hand, maybe I should be spending more time teaching my family to spot a sketchy email than stacking subscriptions. What do you all think, is the human side of security way more important than the tech side? Has anyone else had a close call with a phishing attempt that made you change your habits?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nathan1mo ago

Had a buddy fall for a fake Amazon invoice email last year. Cost him four hundred bucks before he even realized what happened. The whole time he's got a VPN running and password managers and all that crap but one click on a too good to be true refund link and his bank account took the hit. Human side matters way more than people want to admit. Tech helps but it can't fix dumb decisions made in two seconds.

jake9861mo ago

@the_nathan yeah that's the brutal truth. I tell people all the time the best password in the world won't save you if you're rushing through an email with your brain off. I started making myself wait 10 seconds before clicking any link that wants money info. Sounds stupid but saved my ass a few times already.

elizabeths511mo ago

Read something the other day that said scammers actually count on you being in a hurry. They know the one second you take to glance at something is all they need.