Phishing attacks at highest level in three years
The number of phishing attacks continued to rise into the autumn of 2019, according to APWG. The total number of phishing sites detected in July through September 2019 was 266,387. This was up 46 percent from the 182,465 seen in the second quarter of 2019, and almost double the 138,328 seen in Q4 2018. “This…
Phishing attacks are a complex problem that requires layered solutions
Most cyber attacks start with a social engineering attempt and, most often that not, it takes the form of a phishing email. It’s easy to understand the popularity of this attack vector: phishing campaigns are relatively inexpensive (money- and time-wise), yet successful. Attackers don’t need to create/buy technical exploits that might or might not work…
Employees are mistakenly confident that they can spot phishing emails
While a majority (79%) of people say they are able to distinguish a phishing message from a genuine one, nearly half (49%) also admit to having clicked on a link from an unknown sender while at work, according to a Webroot survey. Further, nearly half (48%) of respondents said their personal or financial data had…
Phishing attacks up, especially against SaaS and webmail services
Phishing attacks continued to rise into the summer of 2019 with cybercrime gangs’ focus on branded webmail and SaaS providers remaining very keen, according to the APWG report. The report also documents how criminals are increasingly perpetrating business email compromise (BEC) attacks by using gift card cash-out schemes. The number of phishing attacks observed in…
6 biggest healthcare security threats for 2020
Consumers are more worried now about their protected health information (PHI) being compromised, thanks to high-profile breaches like Anthem and Allscripts. The recent RSA Data Privacy Report surveyed 7,500 consumers in Europe and the US. It showed that 59 percent of the respondents were concerned about their medical data being compromised. Thirty-nine percent were worried…
Researchers reveal the latest lateral phishing tactics
Emails coming from legitimate, compromised accounts are difficult to spot, both for existing email protection systems and the recipients themselves. Lateral phishing tactics Researchers from Barracuda, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego have studied 180 lateral phishing incidents and have identified the following patterns organizations and individuals should be aware of: One in 10 of…
Phishing is a billion-dollar global industry, consumers are the main target
Phishing is a growing pain point for individuals, businesses and CSPs, according to Allot. Consumers are the main target of these attacks, and they are calling for better security for their data and financial information. The research shows that they are right to be concerned. The data showed that during Q1 2019, 7 million European…
Insights into end-user security awareness and behavior around phishing
Phishing remains a leading concern for organizations worldwide. A new Proofpoint report features analysis of data related to nearly 130 million cybersecurity questions and offers insights into employee knowledge levels across 14 categories, 16 industries, and more than 20 commonly used department classifications. Overall, one in every four questions in the “Identifying Phishing Threats” and…
What can financial institutions do to improve email security?
Financial institutions are in a fully-fledged war against data breaches. And rightly so – the finance sector is a frequent target of ransomware, phishing, and other malicious attacks. Sensitive communications are particularly vulnerable, with thousands getting leaked every year. Yet at the same time, championing email security in the finance sector may seem like a…
Why phishing education has never been more critical to your business
Our cyber defenses are becoming stronger and stronger every year. Even the smallest companies can now deploy advanced anti-malware and intrusion detections tools that were, until recently, only within the reach of larger enterprises. Today, sandboxed behavior detection and machine-learning/artificial intelligence powered security services make it easy for organizations of any size to crack down…