Phishing attacks aren’t limited to residential banking information anymore. Online Payment services and Crytographic Security Sites have quickly become the newest targets. In fact, the “Anti Phishing Working Group”, better known as the APWG has seen the second highest number of reported phishing attacks in 2nd Quarter of 2014. This is only superseded by the 3rd quarter of 2013, producing in excess of 180,000 attacks.
In actuality, the number of phishing attacks reported in the first 6 months of 2014 was up 90.6% over the same period the year before.
Not only did the number of incidents increase, but also the frequency of attacks for certain demographics. Alternate payment services were one of the demographics that received an increase in phishing attacks. These included Paylife, Perfect Money, and Payoneer to name a few.
In addition to the alternative online financial sector being hit, bitcoin users also saw an increased frequency in phishing with respect to their accounts.
One area that also saw growth, as well as, continues to see growth is the online retail/service sector. This area’s phishing growth rose from 11.5% to 16.5%. This sector is particularly hot, because the phishing sites collect credit card numbers and other useful information from unsuspecting users.
In short, phishing will continue to be a hot trend in months to come, generating more deceitful ways of getting your information.
As always, the best defense is a strong offence.
Keep your antivirus up-to-date, resist opening emails from financial companies, and not can they be phishing sites, but they may also contain viruses that can infect your computer, use IT manages services and above all, make sure your Microsoft Updates are routinely installed and up-to-date.