{"id":34904,"date":"2019-10-30T11:54:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T11:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2019\/10\/30\/akamai-releases-research-on-the-evolution-of-phishing-attacks\/"},"modified":"2019-10-30T11:56:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T11:56:25","slug":"akamai-releases-research-on-the-evolution-of-phishing-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/2019\/10\/30\/akamai-releases-research-on-the-evolution-of-phishing-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Akamai releases research on the evolution of phishing attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Akamai Technologies has published the\u00a0Akamai 2019 State of the Internet\/Security, Phishing: Baiting the Hook\u00a0<\/em>report.\u00a0The research findings indicate that cybercriminals are using\u00a0enterprise-based development and deployment strategies, such as\u00a0phishing as a service (PaaS), to leverage\u00a0some of the world\u2019s largest tech brands, with 42.63% of domains observed\u00a0targeting\u00a0Microsoft, PayPal, DHL and Dropbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report details\u00a0that phishing is no longer just an email-based threat but has expanded to include social media and mobile devices, creating a wide-reaching problem that touches all industries.\u00a0This evolving method continues to morph into different techniques, one of which being business email compromise (BEC) attacks. According to the FBI, BEC attacks resulted in worldwide\u00a0losses of more than US$12 billion\u00a0between October 2013 and May 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhishing is a long-term problem that we expect will have adversaries continuously going after consumers and businesses alike until personalised awareness training programs and layered defence techniques are put in place,\u201d said Martin McKeay, Editorial Director of the State of the Internet\/Security<\/em> report for Akamai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report shows that cybercriminals are targeting top global brands and their users across various industries\u00a0through highly organised and sophisticated phishing kit operations. During the research period, with 6,035 domains and 120 kit variations, high technology was the top industry targeted by phishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following that, financial services, with 3,658 domains and 83 kit variants, was the second most-targeted industry. E-commerce (1,979 domains, 19 kit variants) and media (650 domains, 19 kit variants) rounded out the list. In all, more than 60 global brands were targeted during the reporting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Akamai\u2019s monitoring, Microsoft, PayPal, DHL and Dropbox were the top targeted brands when it came to phishing, with Microsoft taking up 21.88% of total domains (3,897 domains and\u00a062 kit variants), PayPal taking up 9.37% of total domains (14 kit variants), DHL (7 kit variants) taking up 8.79% of total domains and Dropbox having 2.59% (11 kit variants) of total domains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phishing defences have forced changes to criminal operations, as they seek to remain undetected for as long as possible. According to Akamai\u2019s research, 60% of the phishing kits observed were active for 20 days or less during the reporting period, which is becoming more common among phishing attacks.\u00a0This short lifespan is likely why criminals continue to develop new evasion methods to keep their kits undetected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akamai\u2019s new report also discusses a research project that followed the daily operations of a phishing-kit developer who offered\u00a0three types of kits\u00a0with advanced evasion techniques, design and geo-targeting options. The low prices and top-tier brand targets in these kits are an attractive item, creating a low-barrier for entry into the phishing market for criminals looking to set up shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKeay concluded: \u201cAs the phishing landscape continues to evolve, more techniques such as BEC attacks will develop, threatening a variety of industries across the globe. The style of phishing attacks is not one size fits all; therefore, companies will need to do due diligence to stay ahead of business-minded criminals looking to\u00a0abuse\u00a0their trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Akamai 2019 State of the Internet\/Security Report<\/em>\u00a0is available for\u00a0download. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akamai Technologies has published the\u00a0Akamai 2019 State of the Internet\/Security, Phishing: Baiting the Hook\u00a0report.\u00a0The research findings indicate that cybercriminals are using\u00a0enterprise-based development and deployment strategies, such as\u00a0phishing as a service (PaaS), to leverage\u00a0some of the world\u2019s largest tech brands, with 42.63% of domains observed\u00a0targeting\u00a0Microsoft, PayPal, DHL and Dropbox. The report details\u00a0that phishing is no longer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":34905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}