Employees Are the Primary Target: Rethinking Email Phishing Protection

FAQs

• Why have employees replaced infrastructure as the primary target for modern cyberattacks?

  Attackers have shifted their focus to employees because targeting identity is now the most efficient path to compromising an organization. Rather than attempting to “break in” by exploiting complex software vulnerabilities, modern threat actors prefer to “log in” using valid credentials obtained through social engineering. This trend is driven by the reality that identity-based attacks align closely with legitimate business workflows, allowing attackers to bypass traditional security alerts. Recent data confirms this shift, with nearly 60% of confirmed breaches now involving human actions—such as clicking links or sharing credentials—making the inbox the critical intersection of identity, trust, and vulnerability.

• Does the high success rate of phishing imply that employees are simply careless or untrained?

  No, labeling employees as the “weakest link” is often inaccurate; successful phishing exploits the “Cognitive Attack Surface” of modern work environments rather than simple negligence. Employees operate under high cognitive load, constant context-switching, and pressure to prioritize speed and productivity over security friction. Attackers deliberately time messages to coincide with these operational routines, taking advantage of “decision fatigue” where pattern recognition replaces deliberate analysis. Furthermore, because business incentives often reward efficiency, nearly 69% of employees admit to bypassing security controls if they hinder their ability to get their job done.

• How has phishing tradecraft evolved to bypass traditional detection methods?

  Phishing techniques in 2026 have evolved to minimize detectable artifacts, making them invisible to standard scanners. Attackers now utilize Generative AI to produce messages with perfect tone, context, and terminology, eliminating the linguistic errors that once served as red flags. Additionally, tactics like “Callback Phishing” (TOAD) replace malicious links with phone numbers, moving the attack offline where digital filters cannot follow. Attackers also employ “Quishing” (QR-code phishing) and SVG files that execute logic only within the browser, effectively bypassing static inspection tools that look for known malware signatures.

• If prevention tools are failing, what is the strategic alternative for securing email?

  The strategic focus must shift from a model of perfect prevention to one of operational resilience. Because modern attacks target human decisions and identity, organizations must assume that some credentials will inevitably be compromised and that mistakes will happen. Effective security is designed around how people actually work—imperfectly and under pressure—rather than how they should work. The goal is no longer just to block every incoming threat, but to ensure rapid detection, containment, and recovery to limit the “blast radius” when an incident occurs.

• What specific technologies and practices are required to implement this resilient security model?

  To combat identity-based attacks, organizations should deploy Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES), which uses API-native solutions to monitor behavior inside the cloud mailbox, detecting anomalies like unusual forwarding rules or internal phishing attempts that gateways miss. This must be paired with Zero Trust principles, specifically phishing-resistant authentication like FIDO2, which renders stolen credentials useless to attackers. Finally, training must be “in-flow” and contextual—delivering prompts during actual risky moments—to reinforce behavior change without disrupting the user’s workflow.