The first quarter of this year saw the most phishing attacks ever observed, according to a new report. The APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report for the first quarter of 2022 revealed there were 1,025,968 total phishing attacks. This quarter was the first time the three-month total number of phishing attacks exceeded one million. In March alone there were 384,291 attacks, which was also a record monthly total. The report identified webmail services as one of the most targeted sectors. John LaCour, principal product strategist at PhishLabs by HelpSystems, said that “In the first quarter of 2022, we observed a 7 percent increase in credential theft phishing against enterprise users, up to nearly 59 percent of all malicious emails.” Phishing attacks targeting social media are also rising, with impersonation attacks comprising 47 percent of all social media threats. “A lot of companies don’t realize that their executives are being spoofed on social media. This is a huge business risk,” said LaCour. The report also found that ransomware attacks decreased by 25 percent during the first quarter. Researchers believe this could be due to some of the most prolific ransomware gangs, Pysa and Conti, disappearing from the scene. Read more at HelpNetSecurity or read the full report at APWG here.
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