Someone that is trying to commit a cybercrime would often attempt to impersonate an established brand while doing so because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making them seem more trustworthy to their victims. This is especially common in the world of phishing, where malicious actors try to entice users into opening emails and clicking on links which would result in them losing vast quantities of data.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that LinkedIn was the most impersonated brand out of all of them. This comes out of a report released by Check Point Research, and it revealed that over half of all phishing attacks impersonated LinkedIn in the first quarter of 2022. LinkedIn’s 52% share of being impersonated in phishing attacks is a massive 44% uptick from what was seen last quarter with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Social media platforms in general are starting to become more popular for threat actors that are trying to conduct phishing attacks. Tech companies like Apple and Google are being impersonated less often, but in spite of the fact that this is the case DHL also got impersonated 14% of the time which suggests that shipping companies are also in the line of fire here.
Receiving an email from LinkedIn is more likely to result in user engagement since many of these emails have to do with potential job opportunities among other things. That might be why cybercriminals tend to prefer this platform, and users would be eager to interact with these emails and fill out any forms contained therein especially if they feel like this would lead to them getting a better job than what they have right now.
Users need to be better educated about what legitimate emails look like, and LinkedIn should also take some steps to identify their emails and make them distinguishable from phishing emails that might look similar despite not being safe to open or fill out information in.
Read next: Vulnerabilities In Open Source Pose Security Threats
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that LinkedIn was the most impersonated brand out of all of them. This comes out of a report released by Check Point Research, and it revealed that over half of all phishing attacks impersonated LinkedIn in the first quarter of 2022. LinkedIn’s 52% share of being impersonated in phishing attacks is a massive 44% uptick from what was seen last quarter with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Social media platforms in general are starting to become more popular for threat actors that are trying to conduct phishing attacks. Tech companies like Apple and Google are being impersonated less often, but in spite of the fact that this is the case DHL also got impersonated 14% of the time which suggests that shipping companies are also in the line of fire here.
Receiving an email from LinkedIn is more likely to result in user engagement since many of these emails have to do with potential job opportunities among other things. That might be why cybercriminals tend to prefer this platform, and users would be eager to interact with these emails and fill out any forms contained therein especially if they feel like this would lead to them getting a better job than what they have right now.
Users need to be better educated about what legitimate emails look like, and LinkedIn should also take some steps to identify their emails and make them distinguishable from phishing emails that might look similar despite not being safe to open or fill out information in.
Read next: Vulnerabilities In Open Source Pose Security Threats
