Favorite Phishing Holes of 2022
August 16, 2022
Cybercriminals can always rely on user gullibility, which is why the phishing tactic is not going away any time soon. Cybersecurity firm AtlasVPN presents us with what their researchers found to be the “Top 5 Phishing Statistics of 2022.” Think of it as a how-to for phishers, if you will, but we can also consider it a list of things to watch out for. The first item, for example, is easy to spot right there in the subject line:
“If there is a tell-tale sign that the email one received is a phishing attempt is an empty subject line. Research finds that 67% of cybercriminals leave the subject line blank when sending malicious emails. Other subject lines attackers use, although less frequently, include ‘Fax Delivery Report’ (9%), ‘Business Proposal Request’ (6%), ‘Request’ (4%), ‘Meeting’ (4%), ‘You have (1*) New Voice Message’ (3.5%), ‘Re: Request’ (2%), ‘Urgent request’ (2%), and ‘Order Confirmation’ (2%).”
It is also good to know which companies are most often spoofed and exercise extra caution when something supposedly from them hits the inbox. This year LinkedIn was impersonated in just over half of all attacks, giving it the dubious honor of being the first social media platform to surpass Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Crypto currencies are also a hot scam right now, with Blockchain, Luno, and Cardano the most-spoofed projects. Then there is Amazon, especially targeted on the much-hyped Prime Day. We learn:
“Amazon’s Prime Day is a long-awaited sales event for shoppers. However, while consumers enjoy great deals, criminals are working hard to lure them into fake websites. Amazon was the most frequently impersonated of all the retail brands, with over 1,633 suspicious sites detected in the last 90 days (till July 12, 2022). While the websites are being continuously taken down, as of July 12, the Amazon Prime Day, as many as 897 websites were still live.”
The write-up reports that 54% of phishing attacks that manage to hook a victim result in a data breach while a staggering 83% of organizations have suffered successful attacks so far in 2022. Stay vigilant, dear reader.
Cynthia Murrell, August 16, 2022
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