Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Microsoft, Apple, and Google were the most commonly impersonated brands in phishing attacks last quarter, according to researchers at Check Point. “Microsoft retained its dominance as the most imitated brand in phishing schemes, accounting for a staggering 32% of all attempts,” Check Point says. “Apple followed with 12%, while Google ranked third. Notably, LinkedIn reentered the list at fourth place, emphasizing the persistent targeting of technology and Social Network brands.

There was some good, bad, and neutral news when it comes to email threats in December 2024, according to new data compiled by Trustwave SpiderLabs’ MailMarshal email security team. Trustwave SpiderLabs’ PageML, which is used in MailMarshal’s Blended Threat Module (BTM), flagged 19 million malicious URLs for VirusTotal, of which 2.2 million detections were only picked up by Trustwave. The team reported that 25% of all incoming spam emails were in fact phishing attacks of some type.

Phishing attacks are the most common security issue for smartphone users, according to a new study by Omdia. The survey found that nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents have fallen victim to a mobile phishing attack. The second most common mobile threat was malware, which is usually delivered via social engineering. The researchers note that phishing attacks reached all the smartphones assessed in the study, regardless of vendor.

In 2024’s State of Digital Impersonation Resilience report there was one key finding that neatly frames the digital impersonation fraud challenge. Of the businesses surveyed, 72% use a digital impersonation protection solution, but only 6% could confirm its efficacy. In other words, scam-targeted industries are investing in finding solutions, but those solutions aren’t delivering.

The Russian threat actor “Star Blizzard” has launched a spear-phishing campaign attempting to compromise WhatsApp accounts, according to researchers at Microsoft. The operation targets individuals who are involved in providing assistance to Ukraine.

Phishing attacks are a huge threat. They prey on human trust and manage to trick even the most tech-savvy users. A successful attack on a company’s customers can weaken it financially, create compliance issues, and cause long-lasting reputational damage. Scammers have stolen over $1 trillion globally in just the past year – a staggering figure that rivals the GDP of some nations.

Threat actors are abusing Google Translate’s redirect feature to craft phishing links that appear to belong to, according to researchers at Abnormal Security. Users are more likely to trust links that end in Google’s “.goog” domain, and security filters are less likely to flag these URLs as malicious. “When you enter a URL into Google Translate, it generates a new link, redirecting the user through its platform to the requested page,” the researchers explain.

An SMS phishing (smishing) campaign is attempting to trick Apple device users into disabling measures designed to protect them against malicious links, BleepingComputer reports. “Apple iMessage automatically disables links in messages received from unknown senders, whether that be an email address or phone number,” BleepingComputer explains.