Businesses warned about increasing Phishing Attacks on winter

Come winters and the phishing attacks take a wild turn! The winters are largely associated with celebrations, holidays and merry making, and it is this part of the year when phishing scams occur the most. Therefore, the organizations and individuals should be more vigilant as cyber frauds multiply during this time of the year. The businesses throughout the Europe were warned to remain alert and safeguard themselves against the rising phishing attacks on winter season.

As per the report of F5 Labs, a security firm, it has been highlighted that phishing scams are ready to climb sharply, and would continue to witness an upward trend for the next few weeks. As per the security firm, there was 50% rise in the incidences of fraud between the months of October to January, when compared to annual average. Therefore, the companies should be on alert, so that they do not fall prey to the new threats during this time of the year.

Majority of the times, big tech companies get impersonated by the fraudsters and the hackers. In fact, the tech companies get impersonated in 70% of the incidents. Out of that 70%, 58% of attempts revolve around Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Docusign and Dropbox.

Although the experts are of the view that everyone have equal chance of getting targeted, but the fact is it is the financial organisations which are most of the times at the fraudsters' hit list. Thirteen out of top 20 fastest growing targets have been financial organisations, with the banks accounting for 55% of these attacks. As per the report of F5 Labs, the best method to avoid being phished is giving training to the employees how to remain aware and how to spot the phishing attempt.

Senior EMEA Threat Research Evangelist of F5 Networks, David Warburton, said "it is prime season for individuals giving up credentials or inadvertently installing malware. Businesses are wrapping up end-of-year activities, key staff are on vacation, and record numbers of online holiday shoppers are searching for the best deals, looking for last-minute credit or feeling generous when charities come calling".

» SPAMfighter News - 12/19/2018