Phishing attacks grow 59% in 2012

RSA, the security division of EMC, pointed out in the December Fraud Report, a 59% increase in total phishing attacks worldwide compared to last year. These attacks resulted in a loss of US$ 1.5 billion to the world economy, an addition of 22%. United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Brazil and South Africa, in that order, are the countries that had the most attacked companies in the year. Phishing is a form of electronic fraud characterized by attempts to acquire sensitive information from users on the internet. Brazil recorded 4% of hosted attacks.

The phishing attack is the main way used by hackers to invade corporate and personal data. In 2013, phishing completes 17 years since its first study and continues to grow, developing more and more and attacking different areas. To understand the dimension of this growth, during seven years – from 2004 to 2011 -, the RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) alone acted in 500 thousand phishing operations. In 2012 alone, these operations exceeded 250 thousand.

“Although phishing is one of the oldest types of online scams, internet users still fall into this trap, which is why it remains so popular. With the sophistication of the attacks carried out today, our perspectives indicate that 2013 will be another record year in terms of the number of phishing attacks around the world and Brazil is gaining more and more space in this world scenario”, comments Marcos Nehme, director of the Technical Division for Latin America and the Caribbean at RSA. 

Last year, RSA was able to identify a broader scope in the phishers' target. Airlines and retail websites, gaming platforms, mobile communication providers and webmail services were strategic areas for cybercrime. Online retail stores were the main targets. By creating common webpages that mimicked retailers' homepages, criminals tricked thousands of users into accessing personal and even corporate data. Mobile shopping apps have also been a useful method for phishing and are on the rise this year.