The headline story of 2016 threat landscape was the explosive growth of ransomware and the massive email campaigns that delivered it to organisations of all sizes around the world. Highly personalized, targeted email campaigns focus on exploiting people, not just their technology. Spear-phishing email campaigns, which target specific people rather than indiscriminately seeking victims, were automated to operate at scale. Despite their large numbers, many included multiple personal details specific to the targeted recipient. Social engineering campaigns used documents with malicious macros and other techniques that tricked users into installing malware.

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