Research Finds Alarming Jump in Phishing Attacks

PhishLabs Threat Trends and Intelligence Report show attacks grow 31.5% year-to-date over 2020, with social media attacks continuing to climb; September more than doubles its phishing activity over the same month last year

LONDON, Nov. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PhishLabs by HelpSystems, the leading provider of Digital Risk Protection solutions, today released their Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence Report. Phishing remains the dominant attack vector for bad actors, growing 31.5 percent over 2020. Notably, attacks in September 2021 were more than twice as high as the previous year.

"While we saw a drop early this summer in phishing volume, threat actors didn't take the whole summer off. Attacks have been on the rise since July and surged in September. If these trends continue, many IT security teams will find themselves dealing with a deluge of threats over the holidays," says John LaCour, Founder and CTO of PhishLabs. 

Additional key findings of the PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence Report include:

1. Social Media Attacks Skyrocket in 2021: Since January, the average number of Social Media attacks per target climbed steadily, up 82 percent year-to-date. 
2. Vishing is Increasing: Vishing incidents more than doubled in number for the second consecutive quarter, suggesting a shift in tactics as threat actors seek to evade email security controls.
3. O365 Users Beware: In Q3, 51.6 percent of credential theft phishing attacks reported by corporate users targeted O365 logins.
4. PII Grows on the Dark Web, Leveraging Chat Services: The sale of Personally Identifiable Information accounted for 12 percent of dark web threats and was primarily made up of threat actors marketing employee email addresses to black market buyers. In 56 percent of PII sales, chat-based services were used to market the data.

"The continued climb in social media threats makes it imperative that businesses prioritise visibility across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more. As seasonal hiring ramps up for the holidays, the staffing industry in particular needs to be prepared to deal with online impersonation and other scams," says LaCour. 

PhishLabs analysed and mitigated hundreds of thousands of attacks targeting enterprise brands and employees in the Q3. The report uses this intelligence to determine key trends shaping the threat landscape.

PhishLabs Founder and CTO John LaCour will discuss key findings from the report in a webinar today at 2 p.m. ET. Attend the webinar live or watch on-demand at this link.

The PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence Report is available to download here. 
Quarterly Threat Trends and Intelligence - November 2021 (phishlabs.com)

About PhishLabs

PhishLabs by HelpSystems is a cyber threat intelligence company that delivers Digital Risk Protection through curated threat intelligence and complete mitigation. PhishLabs provides brand impersonation, account takeover, data leakage and social media threat protection in one complete solution for the world's leading brands and companies. For more information visit www.phishlabs.com.