Ransomware attacks were the most notorious forms of cyber attacks that were recorded in 2021, but with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that 2022 is shaping up to be the year of the Phish so to speak. The first quarter of 2022 saw record breaking numbers of phishing attacks occurring, with total attacks exceed a million in a quarter for the very first time to reach 1,025,968 in total.
Also, March turned out to be the worst month for phishing victims by far, as per APWG data. There were over 384,000 phishing attacks conducted in the month of March alone which indicates that these attacks are really increasing in their frequency. Nearly a quarter of these attacks, or 23.6% to be precise, focused on the financial sector with banks being an especially popular target for malicious actors because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to gain access other people’s financial details and accounts.
With the holiday season now firmly behind us, retailers and ecommerce platforms saw a decreasing amount of phishing attacks. The percentage of attacks targeting them fell from 17.3% to 14.6% with all things having been considered and taken into account. In spite of the fact that this is the case, most other industries have been faced with an increasing number of attacks with social media services being targeted 12.5% of the time which is almost 50% higher than the 8.5% proportion they represented last year.
Since the targets for phishing attacks have gone from being non tech savvy people to actual corporate entities, big companies really need to train and educate their employees about the risks of social media spoofing and improper password hygiene techniques. These attacks are getting so frequent that they might be the next big wave of cyber crime, and if last year’s disastrous response to ransomware is any indication we likely won’t come up with a solution for this problem before it reaches its natural ebb state by next year.
Read next: Nearly 15 Billion Accounts Suffered Personal Data Leaks Since 2004 According to This Report
Also, March turned out to be the worst month for phishing victims by far, as per APWG data. There were over 384,000 phishing attacks conducted in the month of March alone which indicates that these attacks are really increasing in their frequency. Nearly a quarter of these attacks, or 23.6% to be precise, focused on the financial sector with banks being an especially popular target for malicious actors because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing them to gain access other people’s financial details and accounts.
With the holiday season now firmly behind us, retailers and ecommerce platforms saw a decreasing amount of phishing attacks. The percentage of attacks targeting them fell from 17.3% to 14.6% with all things having been considered and taken into account. In spite of the fact that this is the case, most other industries have been faced with an increasing number of attacks with social media services being targeted 12.5% of the time which is almost 50% higher than the 8.5% proportion they represented last year.
Since the targets for phishing attacks have gone from being non tech savvy people to actual corporate entities, big companies really need to train and educate their employees about the risks of social media spoofing and improper password hygiene techniques. These attacks are getting so frequent that they might be the next big wave of cyber crime, and if last year’s disastrous response to ransomware is any indication we likely won’t come up with a solution for this problem before it reaches its natural ebb state by next year.
Read next: Nearly 15 Billion Accounts Suffered Personal Data Leaks Since 2004 According to This Report
