Compiled by Verizon, a new research report indicates that it only takes 82 seconds for cybercriminals to snare their first victim in a phishing attack.

The report looks at analyses of almost 80,000 security incidents that hit thousands of companies in 2014. What the analyses found was that 25% of companies were likely to open a phishing email.

Analysis of data breaches found that, in many cases, it had taken less than two minutes for freshly sent phishing emails to catch their first victim.

The phishing scam, once clicked on, would allow the hackers to grab login credentials which would then allow them to access the companies network.

Lead author on the report, Bob Rudis, said: "Training your employees is a critical element of combating this threat."

The report indicates that the first victim clicked on the spam within two minutes of it being sent. Further, half the victims were caught within the first hour of it being sent.

Can you determine what is a phishing email? Take the test @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zw9v34j

Source: BBC.com