Phishing sites are one of the most common ways for cyber criminals used to fraud people. Criminals create a seemingly legitimate copy of a known website and enable people to pass on their personal details and login credentials.
We crunched Google's Data to discover phishing websites trends in 2020. According to Google's Transparency Report, there are over 2 million phishing websites emerged since the start of the year 2020. In comparison to the number of websites in 2019, there is an immense increase in these websites. The overall figure reflects a 19 percent increase in the number of phishing websites. This highlights how this worldwide pandemic has given rise to these online scams.
It was also revealed in the data that during the initial months of 2020, there was an acute rise in the number of phishing sites. With more than 50,000 new phishing sites were detected in February, April, March, and May for weeks.
Whereas, during the second quarter the highest number of phishing sites were reported was more than 635 thousand.
By analysng the data, we can easily link the rise in phishing sites with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During this pandemic, besides increased usage of the internet, a sense of fear spread among people. Due to the panic situation, people were scared of the virus and they don’t care about precautionary measures for online sites. The scammers use this fear and plot plans to fraud people. What people do is download malicious files or to buy a product they order from unsafe pages that result in scams.
For instance, KnowBe4 is a company that deals in cyber security reported that there is a 600 percent spike in Q1 2020 of phishing sites and incidents that are related to the coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, Google blocked 18 million emails a day that is also associated with the pandemic during April 2020.
This trend of phishing sites will extend relatively longer. Coronavirus just intensified the rise, otherwise, it is going to be a long-term problem.
According to Google, since 2015, there was a 12.89 percent increase in the number of phishing websites per year. This can lead to the conclusion that long before covid-19, internet usage was increased that results in more and more rise in online scams. It was not just because of the pandemic.
This clearly does not mean to defend cyber criminals as they are the ones who are involved in fooling people. The data presented, showed that even after many warnings the attacks of phishing websites are constantly increasing.
We crunched Google's Data to discover phishing websites trends in 2020. According to Google's Transparency Report, there are over 2 million phishing websites emerged since the start of the year 2020. In comparison to the number of websites in 2019, there is an immense increase in these websites. The overall figure reflects a 19 percent increase in the number of phishing websites. This highlights how this worldwide pandemic has given rise to these online scams.
Record-breaking increase in phishing sites in 2020
Google's Transparency Stats revealed that 46,000 new phishing sites are emerging in every passing week of 2020.It was also revealed in the data that during the initial months of 2020, there was an acute rise in the number of phishing sites. With more than 50,000 new phishing sites were detected in February, April, March, and May for weeks.
Whereas, during the second quarter the highest number of phishing sites were reported was more than 635 thousand.
By analysng the data, we can easily link the rise in phishing sites with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During this pandemic, besides increased usage of the internet, a sense of fear spread among people. Due to the panic situation, people were scared of the virus and they don’t care about precautionary measures for online sites. The scammers use this fear and plot plans to fraud people. What people do is download malicious files or to buy a product they order from unsafe pages that result in scams.
For instance, KnowBe4 is a company that deals in cyber security reported that there is a 600 percent spike in Q1 2020 of phishing sites and incidents that are related to the coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, Google blocked 18 million emails a day that is also associated with the pandemic during April 2020.
This trend of phishing sites will extend relatively longer. Coronavirus just intensified the rise, otherwise, it is going to be a long-term problem.
According to Google, since 2015, there was a 12.89 percent increase in the number of phishing websites per year. This can lead to the conclusion that long before covid-19, internet usage was increased that results in more and more rise in online scams. It was not just because of the pandemic.
This clearly does not mean to defend cyber criminals as they are the ones who are involved in fooling people. The data presented, showed that even after many warnings the attacks of phishing websites are constantly increasing.
