Email Security Still A Challenge

When it comes to threat vectors, "email is still king," Artes said. Business email compromise, in particular, continues to cost companies a significant amount, totaling $5.3 billion between October 2013 and December 2016. Ransomware attacks, meanwhile, cost businesses an estimated $1 billion in 2016.

Cisco noted a particular increase in malicious content through spam, with 65 percent of business email spam and 8 percent of that malicious content, Artes said. Cisco continues to see the overall volume in spam increasing, and hackers have evolved to make that malicious content more effective, including password-protecting documents to get them past spam filters,  he said.