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Johannesburg - Every fifth phishing attack registered between May last year and late April this year targeted users of banks and other financial organisations.
That figure emerged from research into the evolution of phishing threats, carried out by Kaspersky Lab specialists using data from the cloud-based Kaspersky security network.
The data showed that nearly 21% of all phishing threats registered between May 2012 and April 2013 were aimed at accounts of banks and other financial organisations worldwide.
Fin24 has been inundated with emails from users who have fallen victim to phishing fraud.
At the end of April, Media24 CEO Esmaré Weideman was scammed by a SIM swap syndicate and had R360 000 transferred from her Absa bank account.
Subsequently, many more users told Fin24 that they too had suffered financial losses at the hands of scammers.
The data received from Kaspersky is indirectly confirmed by the banks: according to the results of a global survey conducted in by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab so far this year, about 37% of all banks surveyed were affected by phishing attacks at least once over the previous 12 months.
The report says it’s no surprise that banking and e-commerce has attracted unwanted criminal attention: even a successful attack on search pages, social networks or email can only yield personal data. To turn a profit, cybercriminals must find buyers for this information.
On the other hand, successfully using fake online banking or shopping pages leads directly to earnings for the scammers.
Despite the widespread dangers of phishing attacks, the report said, simply installing a security product with the necessary functionality to protect financial operations will safeguard even the most inexperienced users when conducting transactions online.
That figure emerged from research into the evolution of phishing threats, carried out by Kaspersky Lab specialists using data from the cloud-based Kaspersky security network.
The data showed that nearly 21% of all phishing threats registered between May 2012 and April 2013 were aimed at accounts of banks and other financial organisations worldwide.
Fin24 has been inundated with emails from users who have fallen victim to phishing fraud.
At the end of April, Media24 CEO Esmaré Weideman was scammed by a SIM swap syndicate and had R360 000 transferred from her Absa bank account.
Subsequently, many more users told Fin24 that they too had suffered financial losses at the hands of scammers.
The data received from Kaspersky is indirectly confirmed by the banks: according to the results of a global survey conducted in by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab so far this year, about 37% of all banks surveyed were affected by phishing attacks at least once over the previous 12 months.
The report says it’s no surprise that banking and e-commerce has attracted unwanted criminal attention: even a successful attack on search pages, social networks or email can only yield personal data. To turn a profit, cybercriminals must find buyers for this information.
On the other hand, successfully using fake online banking or shopping pages leads directly to earnings for the scammers.
Despite the widespread dangers of phishing attacks, the report said, simply installing a security product with the necessary functionality to protect financial operations will safeguard even the most inexperienced users when conducting transactions online.
