Phishing attacks up 40 percent in 2023
Kaspersky's annual spam and phishing report, released today, shows its anti-phishing system thwarted over 709 million attempts to access phishing and scam websites in 2023 -- a 40 percent increase over 2022.
There's also been a surge in attacks spread via messaging platforms, including 62,127 phishing attempts on Telegram -- a 22 percent increase from the year before. AI platforms, social media services, and cryptocurrency exchanges are the other most-exploited channels.
While widespread integration of technologies featuring built-in GPT chats has provided scammers with new avenues to exploit, attackers have not forgotten their time-honored tactics. High-profile releases, events, and premieres, such as the Barbie and Wonka movies, are still 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.
"Phishing remains a prevalent threat in today's digital landscape, constantly evolving to deceive unsuspecting users," says Olga Svistunova, security expert at Kaspersky. "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."
Sites aimed at stealing cryptocurrency remain a problem too. Fake pages mimicking popular cryptocurrency sites invite users to sign in with their wallet credentials. But cryptocurrency is used as bait too with ads on social media and spam emails offering the lure of free Bitcoin in order to steal credentials.
World events are still popular spam subjects with emails asking for crypto donations to support victims of the Israel-Hamas conflict, or the Turkish earthquake for example.
In order to stay safe from scams Kaspersky experts advise only opening emails and click links if you are sure you can trust the sender, contacting legitimate senders if the content of the message seems strange, checking the spelling of URLs carefully and using a proven security solution when surfing the web.
You can find out more and get the full report on the Securelist blog.
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