Security News > 2021 > February > Successful BEC attacks become 56% more costly

The number of phishing attacks grew through 2020, fully doubling over the course of the year.

Attacks peaked in October 2020, with a high of 225,304 new phishing sites appearing in that month alone, breaking all previous monthly records, according to APWG. In Brazil, security firm Axur saw a slower growth in the number of phishing attacks that targeted Brazilian companies and consumers in Brazil.

OpSec Security found that phishing that targeted financial institutions was the largest category of phishing in the fourth quarter, at 22.5 percent of all attacks.

In Brazil, Axur found that phishing against e-commerce sites constituted 45 percent of phishing attacks, perhaps taking advantage of consumers who are staying at home and using online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BEC attacks that sought wire transfers from victim companies sought an average of $75,000 - a 56 percent increase from $48,000 in the third quarter of 2020, making very successful.

Encryption is deployed on phishing sites more often than on regular web sites: SSL is currently found on only 66.8 percent of all web sites across the internet.

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