An examination of existing cyber scam dangers by network safety company RSA demonstrates that phishing attacks have risen by 70% since Q2 and currently account for 50% of all online scam attacks experienced by companies.
Phishing attacks are widespread since they are easy to carry out and have a high achievement rate. An attacker can set up a webpage that impersonates a famous brand such as Microsoft or Google that appeals login details. Electronic mails are then transmitted having hyperlinks to the site together with a legal reason for clicking. As per a research carried out by Verizon, 12% of users click hyperlinks in phishing electronic mails.
RSA notes that the bulk of phishing attacks are carried out in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, which account for 69% of all attacks.
RSA has also drawn attention to a particular variation of phishing named vishing. Instead of using electronic mail, vishing attacks happen over the phone. A typical instance involves a scammer pretending to be from the target’s bank. Although the call is unwanted, the scammer pretends that there is a safety problem that requires to be settled and requests confidential information such as bank account information, passwords, and security questions and answers. Vishing accounts for 1% of all scam attempts even though it is a serious danger.
A new variation of vishing has even greater possibility to attain the desired result. Instead of the attacker calling a target, the attacks work in opposite with users calling the scammer. This is being done through search engine killing – Getting malevolent websites listed in the organic search engine results. Other variations include wrong information mailed on social media sites and help media.
14% of spam attacks involve brand misuse: Deceptive posts on social media that deceive a famous brand. 12% of scam attacks involved Trojan horses – malware which is fitted under wrong pretexts. As soon as installed, the malware harvests confidential information such as banking identifications. 2% of scam attacks involve the use of rogue mobile apps. 9,329 rogue moveable apps were identified by RSA in Q3, 2018.
Scam through moveable browsers accounted for the bulk of scam dealings (73%) in Q3 – A rise of 27% since this time last year.