Business email compromise (BEC) is a dangerous type of email spoofing that targets businesses, aiming to damage them in some way. Overall, BEC “is one of the most financially damaging online crimes,” according to a joint Cybersecurity Advisory by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Phishing is the most common form of cybercrime according to the FBI. In 2021, 323,972 victims were recorded across the US, which marks a 34% increase on the previous year. As cybercriminals continue to develop their attack techniques and leverage advances like crime-as-service and chatbots to create phishing emails, this number is likely set to continue rising. Year-on-year victim loss comparison for phishing/vishing/smishing/pharming.
Willie Sutton, the criminal who became legendary for stealing from banks during a forty year career, was once asked, "Why do you keep robbing banks?" His answer? "Because that's where the money is." However, today there's a better target for robbers today than banks, which are typically well-defended against theft... Cryptocurrency wallets.
Stolen employee login credentials are one of the most effective ways for bad actors to infiltrate your organization’s infrastructure. Once they have the login information of one of your accounts in hand, it becomes much easier for them to bypass security measures and gain access to your sensitive data. So how do attackers get those login credentials? The answer in many cases is mobile phishing.
The widespread adoption of cloud transformation and hybrid work are increasing the attack surface while attacks get increasingly sophisticated. Attacks targeting cloud infrastructure and email-borne threats have soared to unprecedented levels, making it critical for organizations to protect sensitive data regardless of where it may be stored.
With the launch of ChatGPT, concerns have been growing around the use of AI in phishing. The concerns are founded: AI can write phishing emails. It’s not the only tool in a hacker’s toolkit either - cybercriminals can use many different technologies to build a phishing campaign and send phishing emails. Many, like chatbots, are widely available for consumer and business use.
Our increasing dependence on the internet and, specifically, email for business and personal communication has produced the perfect environment for cybercriminals to launch phishing attacks. As organization’s technical controls have advanced, cybercriminals have evolved their attacks, making them more difficult for traditional email security solutions that use signature-based detection (such as Microsoft and secure email gateways (SEGs) to detect.
Phishing is a big problem that’s getting even bigger as cybercriminals find new ways to hook employees. With threats coming from every direction – emails on company computers, text and voice messages on mobile devices and in personal communications channels, malicious typosquatting sites, phony marketing QR codes and more – it’s only a matter of time before someone trips up and opens or clicks on something they shouldn’t.
There’s a good chance that you have heard the word phishing or probably even been a victim in the past, however you do not understand what it really means and how to protect yourself from being a victim. According to CNBC, there were 225 million phishing attacks in 2022 which depicts a 61% increase from the number of reported cases in 2021.
