Emails are vulnerable to being hijacked, there’s no way around it. However, what is avoidable, is sending hijacked emails to thousands of unknowing customers. When a brand is targeted by a phishing attack, its customers are 42% less likely to do business with them again online. That would be a huge blow for any company, so it’s important to protect yourself.
Email authentication is the process by which email providers – e.g. Outlook, Gmail, AOL – ensure emails are really from the rightful sender. It also confirms that the email message itself hasn’t been modified, hacked or forged on it’s journey from you to the recipient. Emails that are not authenticated will often end up in your recipient’s spam folder. Email authentication secures the emails you send and gives you the best possible chance of hitting the inbox – and not the Spam folder!
As more and more domains use authentication, hackers are forced to target those who don’t. Check out this infographic to find out the truth about the damage of a phishing attack, and the importance of making sure you are protected with email authentication!
Statistics:
- 77% – the percentage of customers who prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email
- 44% – the percentage of email recipients who made at least one purchase in 2012 based on a promotional email
- 82% – the number of consumers who open emails from companies
- 3.6bn — the number of email accounts in 2013
- 4.3bn — the number of email accounts in 2016
- 84% of all email traffic is spam
- 156 million phishing emails are sent every day, and 16 million make it through filters. 8 million are opened
- 0% – the percentage of non-DKIM emails accepted by Google.
- 91.4% of non-spam emails sent to Gmail users now come from authenticated senders
- When a brand is targeted by a phishing attack, its customers are 42% less likely to do business with them again in the future.
- A phishing attack that affects 500 customer accounts can reach upwards of $1.4 million.