Do you remember being redirected to a suspicious website or being a target of a phishing attack this year which involved Apple, Netflix, or Yahoo?
If the answer is a no, then let’s just be thankful because according to a new report from Check Point, almost 10% of the phishing attacks based on brand impersonation actually copied Apple during the first quarter of the not-so-good year 2020. On second came Netflix with 9% and the third spot was shared by Yahoo and PayPal with 6% each. Unfortunately, the list didn’t end there as more big brands like Chase Bank, Facebook, Microsoft, eBay, and Amazon were also being impersonated.
To put more light onto the matter, researchers also revealed further details through the statistics that revolved around the specific types of phishing attacks that in particular dominated. Almost 59% of the phishing attacks were web-based that majorly involved users to be redirected to a malicious site.
Furthermore, mobile phishing - which was actually third in Q4 of 2019, took over email phishing and stood at the second spot in Q1 2020, comprising up to 23% of all phishing attacks. This change in trend seems to be the result of a more strategic decision by the attackers as more people have been spending time on their mobile phones and email culture declined because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Email phishing was third with 18% and attackers mostly impersonated Yahoo, Microsoft, Outlook, and Amazon in this category.
As per the words of Maya Horowitz, Check Point’s Director of Threat Intelligence and Research, cybercriminals have their focus set to adopting highly sophisticated phishing techniques that involve well-recognized brands only because the attackers know none of the brands would ever go out of demand and neither stop offering something new to its people. In fact, people are going to use essential services offered by these brands more and more in the upcoming days and that gives an ideal chance for criminals to keep playing their move all the time.
Hence, if there is any possibility through which you can protect our privacy then that lies in being vigilant or even taking up security awareness training courses along to identify and tackle any of the email, mobile, and web-based phishing attacks.
Read next: Survey: Apple Is Way More Popular Among Teenagers than Samsung Even In 2020
If the answer is a no, then let’s just be thankful because according to a new report from Check Point, almost 10% of the phishing attacks based on brand impersonation actually copied Apple during the first quarter of the not-so-good year 2020. On second came Netflix with 9% and the third spot was shared by Yahoo and PayPal with 6% each. Unfortunately, the list didn’t end there as more big brands like Chase Bank, Facebook, Microsoft, eBay, and Amazon were also being impersonated.
To put more light onto the matter, researchers also revealed further details through the statistics that revolved around the specific types of phishing attacks that in particular dominated. Almost 59% of the phishing attacks were web-based that majorly involved users to be redirected to a malicious site.
Furthermore, mobile phishing - which was actually third in Q4 of 2019, took over email phishing and stood at the second spot in Q1 2020, comprising up to 23% of all phishing attacks. This change in trend seems to be the result of a more strategic decision by the attackers as more people have been spending time on their mobile phones and email culture declined because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Email phishing was third with 18% and attackers mostly impersonated Yahoo, Microsoft, Outlook, and Amazon in this category.
As per the words of Maya Horowitz, Check Point’s Director of Threat Intelligence and Research, cybercriminals have their focus set to adopting highly sophisticated phishing techniques that involve well-recognized brands only because the attackers know none of the brands would ever go out of demand and neither stop offering something new to its people. In fact, people are going to use essential services offered by these brands more and more in the upcoming days and that gives an ideal chance for criminals to keep playing their move all the time.
Hence, if there is any possibility through which you can protect our privacy then that lies in being vigilant or even taking up security awareness training courses along to identify and tackle any of the email, mobile, and web-based phishing attacks.
Read next: Survey: Apple Is Way More Popular Among Teenagers than Samsung Even In 2020
