Tag Archive for: Phishing

Phishing Attacks Statistics & Facts 2023

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In today’s digital landscape, phishing attacks have become a persistent threat, jeopardizing the security and privacy of individuals and organizations alike. Understanding the scope and impact of these threats is crucial for implementing effective cybersecurity measures or avoiding potentially debilitating costs. 

Phishing statistics can serve as a reliable visual of the real threat behind phishing attacks. With disparate sources online, we’ve pulled together data about the overall impact of phishing attacks through the examination of phishing data on the global economy.

Phishing Statistics Highlights

  • Phishing attacks account for 36% of all US data breaches.
  • 83% of all companies experience a phishing attack each year.
  • There was a 345% increase in unique phishing sites between 2020 and 2021.
  • There were 300,497 phishing attacks reported to the FBI in 2022.
  • Each phishing attack costs corporations $4.91 million, on average.

Summary of Types of Phishing Attacks

Phishing scams account for nearly 36% of all data breaches, according to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Report. And according to a Proofpoint study, 83% of all companies experienced a phishing attack in 2021. 

Here are some of the most common phishing attacks an organization could face: 

Phishing Type Explanation
Email Phishing
  • The most prominent form of phishing.
  • The attacker sends a deceptive email that appears to be from a legitimate source.
  • The emails often demand sensitive information, such as login credentials, social security numbers, or financial details.
Spear Phishing
  • A more targeted form of attack.
  • The attacker does prior research on an individual to create personalized messages.
  • This can increase the likelihood of success, as the sender appears more credible and informed.
Whaling
  • Targets high-profile individuals, such as senior managers or executives.
  • The attacker tailors correspondence to people working below their target, often encouraging the subject to transfer funds or give up other important information.
  • This allows the attacker further access to the system.
Pharming
  • Involves redirecting users to fraudulent websites that mirror the actual website.
  • The attacker aims to get the user to enter…

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“Fancy Bear Goes Phishing” charts the evolution of hacking

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Fancy Bear Goes Phishing. By Scott Shapiro. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 432 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £25

In 1928 many countries signed the Kellogg-Briand pact, which outlawed war. Though often derided as hopelessly idealistic, it had important consequences. Until then, war had been a lawful way for states to settle their differences; by contrast, economic sanctions were illegal. After the second world war, the document served as the legal basis for the Nuremberg trials. A draft of the United Nations charter included its terms almost verbatim.

The status of computer hacking in international law is now similarly irrational. Espionage is basically legal; interfering in the internal affairs of another state is not. Yet when does cyber-espionage tip into cybercrime or even cyber-warfare? If definitions are slippery, preventing cyber-attacks is even harder. They can be ordered by one country, perpetrated by a civilian in a second, using computers in a third to disable those in a fourth, with tracks hidden along the way. To some, the prefix “cyber” suggests the associated wrongs are as resistant to regulation as old-fashioned war can seem to be.

Scott Shapiro, a professor at Yale Law School and erstwhile computer programmer, is well-placed to tackle these quandaries. He is also the co-author of “The Internationalists”, a history of the Kellogg-Briand pact published in 2017. His new book chronicles the internet’s vulnerability to intrusion and attack by forensically examining five hacks that typify different kinds of threat.

Russia, if you’re listening

It begins with the Morris Worm, the internet’s first worm (ie, a self-replicating piece of code that slithers from computer to computer). It came about in 1988 through an experiment-gone-wrong by an American graduate student, which exploited the openness of networked computers. Next comes Dark Avenger, a virus that destroyed computer data in the 1990s. Third is the hack in 2005 of Paris Hilton’s mobile-phone data, which revealed nude photos of the celebrity. The hacker didn’t compromise the phone but rather servers in the cloud on which the images were stored.

The book’s most outrageous and troubling attacks are its last two,…

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