Email attacks grow faster in Europe than the US

Email attacks in the US grew by five times between June 2022 and May 2023. However, Europe saw total attacks increase seven-fold during the same period -- to an average of 2,842 attacks per 1,000 mailboxes in May.

Data released today by Abnormal Security shows that where business email compromise (BEC) attacks are concerned, the disparity is even greater.

Between June 2022 and May 2023, BEC attacks in the US doubled. Meanwhile, in Europe, there was a 10-fold increase in BEC attacks, from an average of one attack to an average of 10 attacks per 1,000 mailboxes.

BEC attacks include techniques like executive impersonation, vendor-focused invoice, and payment fraud, as well as credential phishing, malware, and extortion.

The data shows a spike in the likelihood of receiving a BEC or VEC (vendor email compromise) attack in August in Europe. One reason for this sudden increase may be due to cultural differences between Europe and the US when it comes to summer holidays.

"August is when most Europeans take their annual holiday, and it's not uncommon for employee leave to be highly concentrated around this time, especially when compared to in the United States, where peoples' vacations tend to be more evenly spread throughout the summer months," says Chris Martin, European director at Abnormal. "Attackers can expect that many European employees will be away from their computers or distracted around this time -- a perfect opportunity to target victims who are more likely to mistakenly fall for a social engineering attack."

You can find out more on the Abnormal Security blog.

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