Cyber security threats don’t just come from professional hackers who deploy malware or phishing campaigns across the internet. The biggest risk to your organisation’s data and cyber security might be sitting right next to you.
Employees who, often without thinking or meaning to can open the door to cyber criminals through one of the oldest tricks in the book – phishing emails.
Phishing emails are designed to deceive and trick recipients into revealing sensitive information. This can involve downloading malicious attachments or clicking on harmful links.
Phishing emails are often disguised as trusted communications. They can look like reputable emails from banks, delivery companies, or even your own IT department.
Despite a growing awareness of this threat, phishing remains one of the most effective cyber attack methods because it exploits something technology can’t fully protect against – human behaviour.
In every organisation, no matter how secure its systems, people have to make daily decisions:
Do they open this email?
Can they share a password, or verify a request?
But all it takes is one moment of inattention or one click, to expose the entire network of your organisation.
Phishing emails of today have become far more sophisticated. Today’s cyber attackers use social engineering to craft highly personalised messages. They mimic the logo of your well known supplier, employer or trade partner. They write in a similar style, and even create internal communications that looks convincing.
A well-timed email asking an employee to “verify account details” or “approve a payment” can seem completely legitimate. In work environments, where employees are multitasking or working remotely, those few seconds of doubt ca be few and far between. That’s exactly what attackers are hoping for. They send huge amounts of these phishing emails out and all they need is a few to get succeed for them to get the results needed.
What’s worse, phishing isn’t just about stolen passwords. Many campaigns deliver malware, ransomware, or key loggers that can silently compromise systems long before anyone notices. By the time IT teams detect unusual activity, the damage is often already done.
The impact from a successful phishing attack can be completely devastating for a business. Financial loss, stolen data, and regulatory penalties are just the beginning. But perhaps most costly of all is lost trust. Reputational damage filters down to customers, partners, and a business’ own employees.
According to The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025,
“Of businesses or charities that experienced a breach or attack in the last 12 months, phishing attacks remain the most prevalent and disruptive type of breach or attack (experienced by 85% of businesses and 86% of charities). The qualitative interviews highlighted that phishing attacks were often cited as time-consuming to address due to their volume and the need for investigation and staff training. The qualitative interviews also found that organisations had a growing consciousness that increasingly sophisticated methods, such as AI impersonation, were becoming mainstream. “
So how do you stop your greatest cyber security threat from sitting next to you?
The key lies in building a culture of cyber security awareness.
Cyber security training should go beyond tick-box compliance and become an ongoing conversation. Employees need to understand what phishing looks like, how to spot red flags, and what to do when something feels ‘off.’
Some simple but effective practices include:
Technology can reduce the risk, but it can never replace human awareness. Tools like email filters, anti-phishing software, and spam detection systems catch many attacks, but if a phishing email is successful, then a cyber attack begins.
That’s why employees remain both the weakest link and the strongest defence.
When people understand the tactics used against them and feel responsible for protecting company data, the entire organisation becomes safer.
So, the next time you sit down at your desk, ask yourself the question – could the greatest cyber security threat be sitting at the next desk?
We deliver cyber security awareness training to ensure your employees are equipped with the right knowledge to be that strongest line of defence.
