Netskope Data Shows Phishing Success Rate Tripled in 2024

The rise of cloud computing and AI has created new attack vectors for cybercriminals targeting enterprise data, with phishing attacks becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. As organisations worldwide accelerate their adoption of cloud services and AI tools, this creates a complex security landscape where traditional defence mechanisms prove insufficient.

These challenges are highlighted in new research from Netskope, a secure access service edge (SASE) provider that enables organisations to protect data and defend against cyber threats through cloud security services. The company’s findings reveal a significant increase in successful phishing attempts, despite continued investment in conventional security measures.

Enterprise employees clicked on phishing links at three times the rate in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the company’s annual Cloud & Threat Report. The research reveals that more than eight per 1,000 users clicked on phishing links each month in 2024, an increase of 190% from 2023’s rate of three per 1,000 users – an increase which occurred despite organisations’ continued investment in security awareness training.

Netskope’s research shows attackers concentrated their efforts on cloud platforms where users maintain a level of trust. GitHub, a software development platform, Microsoft OneDrive, a cloud storage service, and Google Drive were targeted, with 88% of organisations experiencing downloads of malicious content from these platforms at least once per month.

Cloud applications emerged as the primary target for phishing campaigns, accounting for 27% of successful attacks. Microsoft services faced the highest proportion of attempts, with 42% of attacks targeting Microsoft Live and Microsoft 365 credential theft.

Personal cloud apps create new enterprise security challenges at Netskope clients

The report identifies that 88% of employees used personal cloud applications monthly in 2024, with 26% of users transmitting data through these channels. Personal cloud storage, webmail, generative AI (Gen AI) platforms, social media, and personal calendar applications represent the most common vectors for data transmission.

The most common policy violations involved regulated data, including personal, financial and healthcare information, which comprised 60% of incidents. Intellectual property represented 16% of violations, while source code accounted for 13%. Password and key exposure constituted 11% of breaches, with encrypted data making up 1% of violations.

Real-time user coaching shows impact on Gen AI security

Organisations have implemented various control measures to manage Gen AI security risks. Real-time interactive user coaching, which provides guidance during application use, is employed by 34% of organisations. This approach appears effective, with 73% of users choosing not to proceed with actions after receiving warning messages about potential policy violations.

The blocking of Gen AI applications has become a common control measure, with 73% of organisations restricting access to at least one platform. The average number of blocked applications remains at 2.4 year over year, though the top quartile of organisations now block 14.6 applications, up from 6.3 in the previous year.

Gen AI adoption drives new security controls at enterprise level

The adoption of Gen AI applications in enterprises increased from 81% to 94% between 2023 and 2024. ChatGPT maintained its position as the most utilised Gen AI platform, with implementation in 84% of organisations.

Employee usage of Gen AI applications increased from 2.6% to 7.8% of workforce populations. The retail and technology sectors showed the highest adoption rates, with 13% of employees using these applications monthly.

Organisations now employ an average of 9.6 Gen AI applications, an increase from 7.6 in 2023. The top quartile of organisations utilise 24 or more Gen AI applications, while the bottom quartile maintain four or fewer.

The implementation of security controls for Gen AI varies across sectors. Data loss prevention (DLP) tools, which monitor and control data transfers, are used by 45% of organisations to regulate information flow into Gen AI applications. The telecommunications sector shows the highest adoption rate at 64%.

Ray Canzanese, Director of Netskope Threat Labs, says: “The common thread for organisations working to safely enable the use of apps in the enterprise, and mitigate the challenges across the threat landscape, is the need for modern data security.”

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