Over 2m phishing attacks recorded in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Rwanda, Ethiopia

Kaspersky analysis has revealed that phishing attacks are becoming increasingly more targeted.

A number of new tricks have also been found – from HR dismissal emails to attacks disguised as delivery notifications.

As a result of such tendencies, security solutions have detected 2,023,501 phishing attacks in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

These and other findings are documented in Kaspersky’s new spam and phishing in Q2 2020 report.

Phishing is one of the oldest and most flexible types of social engineering attacks. They are used in many ways, and for different purposes, to lure unwary users to the site and trick them into entering personal information.

The latter often includes financial credentials such as bank account passwords or payment card details, or login details for social media accounts.

In the wrong hands, this opens doors to various malicious operations, such as money being stolen or corporate networks being compromised. This makes phishing a popular initial infection method.

South African users have been influenced the most by this type of threat: there were 616,666 phishing attacks detected in three months. It was followed by Kenya (514,361), Egypt (492,532), Nigeria (299,426), Rwanda (68,931) and Ethiopia (31,585).

Phishing is a strong attack method because it is done at such a large scale. By sending massive waves of emails under the name of legitimate institutions or promoting fake pages, malicious users increase their chances of success in their hunt for innocent people’s credentials.

The first six months of 2020, however, have shown a new aspect to this well-known form of attack.

Targeted attacks: Small businesses in focus

As Kaspersky analysis has indicated, in Q2 2020, phishers increasingly performed targeted attacks, with most of their focus on small companies.

To attract attention, fraudsters forged emails and websites from organisations whose products or services could be purchased by potential victims. In the process of making these fake assets, fraudsters often did not even try to make the site appear authentic.

Such targeted phishing attacks can have serious consequences. Once a fraudster has gained access to an employee’s mailbox, they can use it to carry out further attacks on the company the employee works for, the rest of its staff, or even its contractors.

Jack of all trades: New tricks for old purposes

The news agenda, following the COVID-19 outbreak, has already influenced the ‘excuses’ fraudsters use when asking for personal information.

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