December 2021 was the most Phished month of all time

APWG.org published its quarterly phishing report. The report shows worrying trends related to the prevalent online scam. The report noted a sharp rise in the number of phishing scams with December 2021 being the highest ever month since APWG began publishing its reports in 2004.

316,747 phishing attacks were seen by APWG in December. Even if compared to the figures reported in January 2021(which was itself a spike), this is still a big jump. December’s figures mark a 29% jump to the figures of January at 245,771 reported cases. Yes, phishing scams are that common now.

Amongst the most common victims of the scams was the financial sector, accounting for 23.2% of all the attacks. Webmail and Software-as-a-service (SAAS) stood second, being at the receiving end of 19.5% of all the attacks.

The report also highlighted changes in the pattern of Business email compromise (BEC) attacks. BEC attacks are the ones in which the attacks personifies someone from a trusted organisation and tries to seek money transfers through the use of fake email ids. Quarter 4 of 2021 marked a dip in the total amount transferred at $50,027 when compared to Quarter 3 figures of $64,353. However, the number of cases with demanded transaction amounts more than $10,000 declined in Quarter 4. Scammers are asking for smaller amounts now to avoid suspicions.

The report is a part of a series of Quarterly Phishing Activity Trends Report. The report provides valuable insight into the status of cybersecurity at present times. It can provide valuable inputs while making cyber infrastructure decisions for your business ventures or personal enterprises.

Check out the full list of quarterly reports here.


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