- Joined
- May 15, 2016
- Messages
- 10,394
- Likes
- 2,620
- Points
- 1,730
In 2020, a record 2 million phishing sites were recorded.
Anyone can buy ransomware for as little as $66 or hire a cybercriminal for $250. If you spend more time searching underground forums, you can even get a phishing attack kit for free. While these illegal methods may be inexpensive, the damage they cause can be significant.
The low cost of malware is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of cyber incidents. Phishing is more popular than ever. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), phishing complaints more than doubled in 2020 to 241,342 cases from the previous year. In 2020, a record number of phishing sites was recorded - 2 million (the highest figure in the last decade).
Phishing kits are ZIP files with all the scripts needed to carry out an attack. Kits like these allow anyone with minimal programming skills to run massive extortion campaigns. In 2019, the average price of a phishing kit was $304, with prices ranging from $20 to $880.
According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, ransomware attacks cost companies an average of $4.62 million in 2021 (not including the ransom required). While ransomware makes headlines, other, more sophisticated attacks show just how far attackers will go to achieve their goals. For example, Lithuanian citizen Evaldas Rimasauskas, along with his accomplices, created a fake company to imitate Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese business partner of Google and Facebook. The fake company sent out phishing emails with fake invoices attached. Fraudsters tricked Google and Facebook into transferring more than $100 million to bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus.
Phishing accounts for 42% of ransomware infections. Another 42% of ransomware attacks occur through open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services. Attacks on RDP services use brute force, weak credentials, or phishing to gain access to legitimate credentials.
__________________
Anyone can buy ransomware for as little as $66 or hire a cybercriminal for $250. If you spend more time searching underground forums, you can even get a phishing attack kit for free. While these illegal methods may be inexpensive, the damage they cause can be significant.
The low cost of malware is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of cyber incidents. Phishing is more popular than ever. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), phishing complaints more than doubled in 2020 to 241,342 cases from the previous year. In 2020, a record number of phishing sites was recorded - 2 million (the highest figure in the last decade).
Phishing kits are ZIP files with all the scripts needed to carry out an attack. Kits like these allow anyone with minimal programming skills to run massive extortion campaigns. In 2019, the average price of a phishing kit was $304, with prices ranging from $20 to $880.
According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, ransomware attacks cost companies an average of $4.62 million in 2021 (not including the ransom required). While ransomware makes headlines, other, more sophisticated attacks show just how far attackers will go to achieve their goals. For example, Lithuanian citizen Evaldas Rimasauskas, along with his accomplices, created a fake company to imitate Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese business partner of Google and Facebook. The fake company sent out phishing emails with fake invoices attached. Fraudsters tricked Google and Facebook into transferring more than $100 million to bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus.
Phishing accounts for 42% of ransomware infections. Another 42% of ransomware attacks occur through open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services. Attacks on RDP services use brute force, weak credentials, or phishing to gain access to legitimate credentials.
__________________