Kaspersky's anti-phishing system thwarted over 709 million attempts to access phishing and scam websites in 2023, have been thwarted by Kaspersky's anti-phishing system, marking a 40 percent increase compared to the previous year's figures. Messaging apps, artificial intelligence platforms, social media services, and cryptocurrency exchanges were among the pathways most frequently exploited by threat actors to scam users.
Kaspersky’s annual analysis of the spam and phishing threat landscape revealed a persistent trend for 2022: a marked increase in phishing attacks. This continued to escalate in 2023, surging by over 40 percent and reaching a staggering 709,590,011 attempts to access phishing links. Besides a significant spike in phishing activity observed in May and June, the number of attacks rose steadily throughout the year. This trend could be linked to the onset of the holiday season, during which scammers commonly propagate travel-related scams, such as counterfeit airline tickets, tours, and enticing hotel deals.
The widespread integration of technologies
featuring built-in GPT chats has provided scammers with new avenues to exploit.
However, attackers have not forgotten their time-honored tactics. High-profile
releases, events, and premieres, such as Barbie and Wonka, remained
irresistible to phishers and scammers, whose counterfeit websites ensnared
those eager to access the next big thing ahead of schedule or at a discounted
rate.
Additionally, Kaspersky experts have observed a surge in attacks spread via messaging platforms. Kaspersky solutions
thwarted 62,127 attempts to redirect via phishing and scam links on Telegram, a notable 22% increase in
such threats from the last year.
As in the previous year, the majority of redirection attempts
in messengers via phishing and scam links were blocked by our solutions on
devices owned by users in Russia. Brazil maintained second place, doubling the
number of blocked phishing attacks, followed by Turkey, India, Germany, and
Italy, where Telegram-based phishing activity also grew. Users from Mexico took
seventh place this time, displacing Saudi Arabia from the top seven.
"Phishing remains a prevalent
threat in today's digital landscape, constantly evolving to deceive
unsuspecting users. Vigilance and skepticism are our strongest defenses against
falling victim to these malicious schemes. Stay cautious, verify before you
click, and protect your digital identity," comments Olga Svistunova, security
expert at Kaspersky.
To learn more about phishing threat landscape, visit Securelist.com.
In order to avoid becoming a victim of phishing-based scams, Kaspersky experts advise the following:
- Only open emails and click links if you are sure you can trust the sender.
- When a sender is legitimate, but the content of the message seems strange, it is worth checking with the sender via an alternative means of communication.
- Check the spelling of a website’s URL if you suspect you are faced with a phishing page. If you are, the URL may contain mistakes that are hard to spot at first glance, such as a 1 instead of I or 0 instead of O.
- Use a proven security solution when surfing the web. Thanks to access to international threat intelligence sources, these solutions are capable of spotting and blocking spam and phishing campaigns.
About Kaspersky
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and specialized security solutions and services, as well as Cyber Immune solutions to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help over 220,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
