Beware of phishing scams 3.0; email is main target

IN its latest 2023 cybersecurity report, an enterprise cloud email security solutions provider reported that the proportion of email-delivered-attacks (compared to web-based attacks) has increased, reaching a staggering record of 86 percent of all file based in-the-wild attacks. Data from cybersecurity firm Avanan show an increase in the utilization of various types of archive file formats as threat-actors attempt to conceal malicious payloads.

Business email compromise (BEC) is a specific type of phishing attack, a spear phishing attack to be precise, with the objective being to trick employees into taking harmful actions, typically sending money to the attacker. BEC is one of the most damaging and expensive types of phishing attacks in existence. While ransomware tends to attract more notoriety, the FBI reported that BEC-related scams totaled $2.7 billion in 2022, compared to just $34 million for ransomware. Meanwhile in Australia, the impact of BEC scams on victims is significant, with financial losses totaling more than $79 million in 2021. This led to the creation of the BEC Taskforce in January 2020,