spear phishing attacks 2019

83% of global infosec respondents experienced phishing attacks in 2018, an increase from 76% in 2017. Most of the phishing emails being sent are part of large campaigns sent randomly using huge lists of email addresses, but not all. If you are suspicious about links, don’t click on them. Barracuda’s research reveals key takeaways about how these targeted attacks are evolving and the approaches cybercriminals are using to maximize their impact. As a result, EC3 organised a Joint Advisory Group meeting from 26 – 27 March 2019 at Europol to discuss what industry and law enforcement can do In 2018, reports of credential compromise rose 70% over 2017, and they’ve soared 280% since 2016. Most of these updates have security software that help prevent attack. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of equities.com. Let's discuss some terms first. 12. sure the authenticity of the links present in email body before clicking on it. A phishing mail is quickly opened and an attachment with malware downloaded or private payment data entered in an input form and voila: the phishing attack is a full success. Do not post anything that you do not want a potential scanner to see! However, they are also a portal through which attackers can take advantage of our human nature. This is very different to antivirus or other malware protection tools that look only at isolated instances of attack. The attackers also demanded that Sony also withdraw its film The Interview, a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco with a story plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and threatened terrorist attacks at cinemas screening the film. There are several different types of phishing attacks, and the type the scammers use depends on their end goal. Spear Phishing Attack. The attacker would … The fraudulent but convincing messages are usually very urgent in nature and demand sensitive information or contain malware that the victim unwittingly activates. Some key recommendations from the Europol report are as follows: Email and social media keep us connected to our friends, families, employers and favorite brands. Of course, these are just a few examples of prominent attacks that made it to the front pages of the Internet. The phisher acquires personal details of victims such as their friends, hometown, employer, locations they frequent, and what they have recently bought online. Without proper protocol and security measures in place, a targeted attack could spell disaster for your organisation. This information enables highly effective spear phishing attacks that can result in “much greater damage overall.” According to Europol, “one successful attempt can be enough to compromise a whole organization.”. The report, titled Spear Phishing: Top Threats and Trends Vol. I recommend a storage and data protection assessment be conducted twice a year InfoSec, Risk, and Privacy Strategist - Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2019 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index Report, Business Email Compromise: The $26 Billion Scam, fake unusual sign-in activity notifications, incident response and investigation processes, The structure of the organization — who works where and to whom they report, The various tools, skills and knowledge bases staff use routinely, The processes in place at that particular organization or location, Review your organization’s social engineering footprint, especially on the topics of structure, processes and software. Phishing and Email Fraud Statistics 2019. The same survey also indicates that 86% of respondents reported dealing with business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Use logic when opening email, and do not click links in emails. Targets have Europol warns that there is a wealth of at-risk information online about organizations and specific employees, such as top-level managers and finance or payroll staff. According to a new market research report published by Acute Market Reports “Global Spear Phishing Protection Market – Growth, Future Prospects, and Competitive Analysis,2019 – 2027”, the overall spear phishing protection market has been registered a market value of US$ 923.65 Mn in 2018 and is set to grow with a CAGR of 11.60 % during the forecast period. The largest form of phishing attacks, at 51%, is a malware attack. Spear phishing is a targeted attempt to steal sensitive information such as account credentials or financial information from a specific victim. In the release, titled “Business Email Compromise: The $26 Billion Scam,” the FBI shared sobering statistics about just how effective BEC fraud has become. However, attackers leveraging wire transfers were able to move substantially more money ($52,325 on average) compared to those choosing the gift card route, who averaged just $1,571. Email, web, social media, SMS, and mobile apps are all major parts of our digital lives. Once this information is provided, the attacker can use it to gain access into such individuals' bank accounts or even steal an identity to create a new one using the information obtained. The most risky and Come 2019, cyber criminals have upped their game and according to new research, cyber criminals will continue to target end users. Your curiosity to see what's in the message and the personalized nature of the message with your first name are examples of factors working against you to encourage you to click or open the malware. The company maintained large databases of emails from multiple corporate clients and more importantly, some very rich behavioral data that could be a goldmine for a sophisticated scammer. To avoid raising suspicion and increase their chance of success, spear phishing campaigns tend to seek critical information related to three key aspects of a target organization: Extensive use of job advertising sites and social media platforms by organizations and employees alike can make the process of assembling this information much easier and faster than it would have been just a decade ago. The average financial cost of a data breach is $3.86m (IBM) Phishing accounts for 90% of data breaches. The attack involved an email with a link to a malicious site which resulted in downloading of Win32.BlkIC.IMG, which disabled anti-virus software, a Trojan keylogger called iStealer, that was used to steal passwords, and an administration tool called CyberGate, which was used to gain complete remote control of compromised systems. As the APWG noted, the preferred method was to ask for gift cards (56 percent), with another 25 percent moving funds via payroll diversion and 19 percent via direct transfers. Hackers use a method called Spear Phishing to trick users into giving up their data freely. Because phishing is a means to an end, one common follow-up that’s often observed alongside a phishing campaign is business email compromise (BEC). If you're a fan of Hollywood movies, chances are you have heard of the hack that involved the leaking of emails linking various celebrities including then President Barack Obama, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio and David Fincher, which ultimately led to the forced resignation of the targeted Sony executive and the the payment of $8 million in compensation - $4.5 million to employees and $3.5 million to attorneys. One year after the arrest made in Spain, spear phishing is still one of the most common and most dangerous attack vectors seen by both, law enforcement and industry. I personally suggest making But there are ways to actually protect yourself against spear phishing. With this form of attack, a hidden malware in a link triggers a download. Be careful and meticulous about what you post online. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Many organisations saw a shocking increase in social engineering throughout 2018, phishing attacks in particular. This year's report shows how phishing continues to evolve as threat actors adapt to (and exploit) changes in the digital landscape. Scammers invest heavily in creating innovative spoofs, and people and businesses must also invest accordingly, including incorporating measures against known cases of spear phishing or using advanced machine learning techniques that can predict the likelihood of an email being part of a spear phishing attack. (Source: Varonis ) In Q1 of 2019, 21.7% of all phishing attempts Kaspersky Labs tracked were aimed at Brazilian users. In September 2019, the FBI issued a rare warning about BEC attacks via its IC3 reporting center. Watch what personal information you put on the internet. Even though RSA managed to spot the attack in progress, the attackers still managed to steal sensitive data from RSA’s network. Phishing attacks have been increasing steadily throughout 2019. experienced spear phishing attacks and 86% of them faced BEC attacks.16 In 2019, one of the most targeted service was Microsoft 365 and the main focus was on harvesting credentials.17 Once these credentials had been acquired, the attacker was able to collect more organisational data, a process that could last for weeks or months18 and could then lead to spear-phishing attacks. This shows just how hard it is to identify and properly respond to targeted email threats. Keep in mind the following tips to be safe from this cyber crime. According to APWG’s Phishing Activity … Consider also whether your password is unique, and, critically, whether you will be able to remember it. »Don't assume that you're too smart to fall for a spear phishing attack. Some spear phishing attack examples include: Irony struck the security giant RSA in March 2011 when the systems behind the EMC division’s flagship SecurID 2-factor authentication product were compromised using spear phishing. If BEC attacks have been getting a lot more coverage in 2019, it’s because there has been an uptick in activity and in losses reported by businesses and individuals. Proofpoint’s 2019 State of the Phish Report found that 83% of respondents were hit by at least one spear phishing attack in last year. Organizations and individuals must remain vigilant for spear phishing and BEC attacks by combining awareness with robust security controls and processes that boost overall cyber resilience. Security firm Trend Micro estimated that spear phishing accounted for 91% of cyberattacks. Phishing Activity Trends Report, 3rd Quarter 2019 ! Many scams, especially the ones that target private individuals are likely never reported but still, perform their mission with devastating precision. Sony did have to cancel the release in theaters but managed to release a digital copy of the movie instead. 4. In 2017, spear-phishing emails were the most widely used infection method, employed by 71% of hacker groups which carried out cyber attacks. Via phishing emails, the attackers managed to install malware and steal sensitive information about Sony Pictures and its employees, a large selection of unreleased films and then managed to permanently delete from a large part of Sony’s infrastructure. Europol noted that 65 percent of targeted attacks involved spear phishing as the primary infection vector. This is an interesting example of spear phishing targeting private individuals as opposed to business. The latest estimate from ProofPoint’s State of the Phish 2020 report indicates that nearly 90% surveyed organizations faced spear phishing attacks in 2019. The email will ask the recipient to supply confidential information, such as bank account details, PINs or passwords; these details are then used by the originators of the phishing email to conduct fraud. Analysis and insights from hundreds of the brightest minds in the cybersecurity industry to help you prove compliance, grow business and stop threats. 72% of COVID-19-related attacks … Just how susceptible are people to phishing and spear phishing? Presenting the users with the anatomy of a typical spear phishing attack and outlining the pitfalls of falling victim can make users more vigilant in dealing with emails involving links and calls to action. The Spam and Phishing in Q1 2019 report from SecureList (Kaspersky Labs) indicates that phishing attacks targeted users in Brazil most heavily compared to other countries. Like the APWG’s statistics, Europol’s findings show that the number of phishing websites has reached new record levels. Targeted spear phishing attacks are carefully designed to go undetected. With regard to cyber espionage, phishing was used in 78 percent of cases. APWG member Agari tracks the identity theft technique known as “business e-mail compromise” or BEC. This involves constantly educating the users about what spear phishing attacks are, and how to guard against them. This is usually combined with a threat or request for information: for example, that an account will close, a balance is due or information is missing from an account. In a BEC attack, a scammer targets employees who have access to company finances, usually by sending them email from fake or compromised email accounts (a “spear phishing” attack). Healthcare data is apparently worth more on the black market than even financial data and could have potentially resulted in profits of millions of dollars for perpetrators. You have to be logged in to leave a comment. The email advised that the hosts could not accept any more bookings until they accept compliance with GDPR policy from Airbnb. Type the claimed sender's website 5 – Best practices to defend against evolving attacks, revealed a rise in number of business email compromise (BEC) attacks, which make up 12% of all spear-phishing attacks targeting businesses, up from just 7% in 2019. BEC attacks often involve tricking the victim into transferring funds to accounts under attackers’ control, and fraudsters have three main vehicles for “cashing out” in this way. address directly into your browser to get to your For example, the APWG reported that by the end of 2019, 68 percent of all phishing sites used SSL protection — up from around 10 percent in Q1 2017 — so telling users to look for SSL/TLS visual clues in websites is no longer an effective strategy by itself. Phishing is the act of sending emails that falsely claim to be from a legitimate organization. To read our full disclosure, please go to: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer. Some of the campaigns are far more targeted and are sent to only a handful of individuals – To individuals in a specific department in a company, for instance. BEC scams accounted for over $12 billion in losses (FBI) Phishing attempts have grown 65% in the last year. Spear-Phishing, a Real-Life Example July 5, 2019 By Emil Hozan While reading some online security articles, one in particular stood out. For example, the website, Europol has indicated that many organizations are simply unprepared to investigate spear phishing and BEC incidents adequately. Phishing attacks are at their highest level in three years. 1. In the corporate environment, one of the biggest spear phishing attacks was that on email marketing services company Epsilon back in 2011. Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information or data, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. In their latest report covering Q3 2019, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) labeled this period as “the worst period for phishing that the APWG has seen in three years.” For each month from July to September 2019, they reported over 80,000 phishing sites, with three-quarters of all attacks targeting just three industry sectors: SaaS/webmail (33 percent), payment industry (21 percent) and financial institutions (19 percent). destination safely. It is almost impossible to protect against spear phishing considering the number of nuances and intricacies that go into the planning and execution. 8 July 2019. © 2020 Equities News | Equities.com, Inc. * All dates and time are being displayed in Eastern Standard Time (EST). For this reason, users must invest in the right technology that is purpose-built for such multi-dimensional threat protection. From 2013 to 2019, the FBI reported nearly 70,000 American victims, totaling over 10 billion dollars in losses for the U.S. alone. Business email compromise (BEC) makes up 12% of the spear-phishing attacks analyzed, an increase from just 7% in 2019. The reason it stood out was how the story was told; it wasn’t just a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo that is tough to decipher. Globally, there were over 150,000 victims, with more than 26 billion dollars at stake. If there is no prior knowledge or spear phishing protection in place, attackers can easily target victims who put personal information on the internet. In addition, spear phishing attacks can deploy malware to hijack computers, organizing them into enormous networks called botnets that can be used for denial of service attacks. The perpetrators usually disguise themselves as trustworthy entities and then make contact with their target through email, phone calls (also called vishing for voice phishing), social media and even text messages (also called smishing for SMS-phishing). In this attack, scammers used social engineering techniques to identify Airbnb host targets who were sent out fake emails about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) implications. Students and undergraduate applicants to Lancaster University had their personal details stolen in a pair of breaches that were disclosed on 22 July 2019. 84% of SMBs Targeted by Phishing Attacks This phishing attack apparently had a political motive and was launched by a hacker group named Guardians of Peace, which the US investigators traced back to North Korea. An example of a spear phishing email. Spear phishing campaigns are still hackers’ most-used attack vector in 2019, with over 90% of successful data breaches occurring as a result of a spear-phishing attack. Researchers at Verizon concluded that under the right conditions anyone can be fooled by a spear-phishing message. Given their highly personalized nature, these attacks are far more difficult to prevent as compared to regular phishing scams. 72% of COVID-19-related attacks are scamming. According to, Implement best practices for responding to. The first incident was a … to assess the state of health of your data protection program. highly popular type of cyber attacks is the Recent statistics from numerous sources point to an increase in the level of phishing activity and sophistication, as well as a heightened impact on organizations in terms of money stolen, data held for ransom and intellectual property pilfered. And they are all being abused for phishing attacks. Top leadership should encourage the development and refining of dedicated, Organizations should also conduct a yearly review of controls and processes to get assurances of their effectiveness. But much of the advice which was common as recently as five years ago is no longer sufficient. Subscribe to get our Daily Fix delivered to you inbox 5 days a week, » Email Marketing Services Company Epsilon Breach. Chris Veltsos is a professor in the Department of Computer Information Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato where he regularly teaches Information ... read more. spear phishing attack. Generally set passwords that are a minimum of 12 to 14 characters in length. The stronger our technical defenses become, the more threat actors look to target the human dimension of security. Phishing attacks jump by 21% in latest quarter, says Kaspersky by Lance Whitney in Security on August 29, 2019, 6:36 AM PST The number of worldwide phishing attacks detected by … Prevention against Spear phishing attacks. Phishing is an all encompassing word for all forms of online attack in an attempt to get victims to share sensitive information about themselves. Clicking on the link would take the user to a spoof site that then harvested personal information. Business email compromise (BEC) makes up 12% of the spear-phishing attacks analyzed, an increase from just 7% in 2019. Business email compromise attacks, for example, are also known as whaling, CEO fraud, or wire-transfer fraud. Such reviews must address the human dimension of security with tailored security awareness campaigns and phishing tests as well as a review of technology controls and response processes. There is no fixed script that can be followed against spear phishing protection, but the following best practices are highly recommended. The file then allows the hacker to carry out a range of actions. The best passwords are a mix of numbers, special characters and a mix of upper and lower case letters. Spear phishing may sound simple, but the attack emails have greatly improved in the last few years and are now extremely difficult to detect. Username and password do not match or you do not have an account yet. a targeted attempt to steal sensitive information such as account credentials or financial information from a specific victim The most successful type of phishing attack is the so-called spear-phishing attack, which is specifically aimed at individuals or certain companies. I'm sorry, but in order to complete what you're trying to do, you must be logged in. Targeted spear phishing attacks are carefully designed to go undetected. The City of Naples says the cyber attack that resulted in the loss of $700,000 was a "sophisticated" spear phishing strategy. Phishing is social engineering using digital channels. Respondents reported dealing with business email compromise attacks, at 51 %, is a business. Over $ 12 billion in losses for the U.S. alone breach attacks with spear is! S phishing Activity … phishing and email fraud Statistics 2019 anything that you do not post spear phishing attacks 2019 that you too. 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Site that then harvested personal information you put on the internet likely never reported still... Harder it will be to crack also known as “ business e-mail compromise ” or BEC of. A rare warning about BEC attacks via its IC3 reporting center with GDPR policy Airbnb. Is measured by the share of users whose Anti-Phishing solutions were triggered by users in those.... Actors adapt to ( and exploit ) changes in the cybersecurity industry help. There are several different types of phishing websites has reached new record levels U.S. alone not click links in.. Use logic when opening email, web, social media, SMS, and soon up their data.. Anything that you 're too smart to fall for a spear phishing attack is act.: Top threats and Trends Vol nature, these are just a few examples of prominent attacks that it... And retrieval program for your business, you must be logged in phishing accounts for 90 of! 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End users making any investment decisions their highly personalized nature, these are just a few examples prominent! But still, perform their mission with devastating precision security measures in,.

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