Phishing Attacks Show a Steady Annual Growth of 150%

The latest Phishing Activity Trends Report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) shows an unrelenting upward trend in phishing attacks per quarter. According to the report:

• The number of unique email subjects increased by 99.2%, totaling over 250,000 in Q4
• The number of brands impersonated decreased slightly by 4% to 1780
• The number of unique phishing websites increased slightly by 6% to just over 1.3 million

In essence, it appears that more unique campaigns are the answer – after all, there are only so many brands that have a broad appeal. It is interesting to see that the number of phishing websites is not increasing with the unique email subjects. However, the “unique” email subjects may simply be variations on a theme aimed at using the same phishing website to capture credentials, banking details, etc.

The scarier part of this report is that 150% continual growth.

Source: APWG

This growth is a mix of new threat actors getting into the game, the increase of “as a service” cyberattacks, and the fact that successful attacks are also increasing in numbers.

Organizations need to prevent these attacks before they truly start. And with the seemingly never-ending growth in phishing, implementing Security Awareness Training is becoming increasingly important. If you’re ready to start building your human firewall, contact us today.

Information in this article was provided by our partners at KnowBe4.