What is Phishing
1 in 3 Untrained Employees Will Click on a Phishing Link – New Report
Image sourced from Kaspersky. KnowBe4, one of the world’s largest cyber-security awareness training companies and simulated phishing platform provider, has released the new 2022 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report to measure an organisation’s Phish-prone Percentage (PPP), which indicates how many of their employees are likely to fall for phishing or a social engineering scam. With ransomware payments averaging $580,000 in 2021 and business email compromise (BEC) losses topping $1.8 billion in 2020, a cyber attack can wreak havoc on an organisation. Yet, according to the baseline testing conducted for the report, without security training, across all industries globally, 32.4% of employees are likely to click on a suspicious link or comply with a fraudulent request. In some large categ...
Protect Yourself: Top 10 Most Common Phishing Email Subject Lines
KnowBe4, the provider of one of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, has announced the results of its Q3 top-clicked phishing report. “Social engineering attacks continue to be one of the top ways malicious hackers breach organizations and/or cause damage,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. “We are seeing a continued increase in phishing, including more use of common HR types of communications and less reliance on obvious social media phishing campaigns. By equipping security professionals with more data on likely tactics and templates used by cybercriminals executing phishing attacks, infosec professionals can strengthen their human firewall. Now more than ever, end-users need to remain vigilant and remember to stop and think before they click....
Beware: These Are The Top 10 Brands Imitated in Phishing Attacks
Image sourced from Kaspersky. Check Point Research (CPR), the Threat Intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies, a leading provider of cyber security solutions globally, has published its new Brand Phishing Report for Q3 2021. The report highlights the brands which were most frequently imitated by criminals in their attempts to steal individuals’ personal information or payment credentials during July, August and September. In Q3, Microsoft continued its reign as the brand most frequently targeted by cybercriminals, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Twenty-nine per cent of all brand phishing attempts were related to the technology giant, down from 45% in Q2 2021, as threat actors continue to target vulnerable, distributed workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon has replac...
Most SAns Would Stop Trusting Brands Involved in Phishing Attacks – Survey
Image sourced from Kaspersky. According to the global Brand Trust survey by cybersecurity company Mimecast, almost three-quarters (74%) of South African consumers would stop buying from a brand if they fell victim to a phishing attack involving that brand, with 93% of South African consumers expecting their favourite brands to ensure their services, such as websites, emails and other communication, are safe to use. Heino Gevers, cybersecurity expert at Mimecast, says brands need to do more to protect their customers from cybercriminals. “South Africans are incredibly trusting with 69% of consumers not hesitating to open an email from brands they use regularly, and 56% readily clicking on links from their favourite brands. However, with cyber threats- including impersonation attacks and phi...
3 Trends to Understand the Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. Given the global disruption that took place last year, it is hardly surprising that malware increased by 358% and ransomware by 435% as compared to 2019. The rapid push to digitalise and embrace work from home solutions meant companies not only had to accelerate data migration projects to the cloud but also remain cognizant of how best to secure employee endpoint devices while keeping the impact on productivity to a minimum. What makes the likes of malware and ransomware so difficult to combat is that successful attacks on corporate networks and endpoint devices can potentially remain hidden for months giving the hacker access to a veritable treasure trove of information. Attackers can encrypt this compromised data at any time, resulting in significant da...
WhatsApp Overwhelmingly Popular for Phishing Scammers, According to Kaspersky
Anonymised data, voluntarily provided by Kaspersky Internet Security for Android users, has shown which messenger apps are the most popular among phishing scammers. The biggest share of detected malicious links between December 2020 and May 2021 were overwhelmingly sent via WhatsApp (84.9%), followed by Telegram (5.7%). “Percentage of Phishing Detections by Messanger App.” Courtesy of Kaspersky. Viber is in third place with a share of 4.9% and Hangouts has less than 1%. Countries experiencing the highest number of phishing attacks were Russia (46%), Brazil (15%) and India (7%). Globally, 480 detections were recorded per day. Messenger Apps Surge in Popularity According to research, messenger apps outstripped social networks by 20% in 2020, in terms of popularity among users, and ...
