Akamai’s 2019 State of the Internet / Security Report found that 6,035 domains were being used to host 120 different phishing kits, according to BleepingComputer. The phishing kits impersonated more than sixty well-known brands, with Microsoft, PayPal, DHL, Dropbox, DocuSign, and LinkedIn leading the pack. The high-technology sector was targeted the most, followed by financial and e-commerce services.
In total, Akamai’s researchers observed 2,064,053,300 unique domains associated with malicious activity over the course of sixty days. The vast majority of these were linked to botnet traffic and shut down within a day, with less than four percent staying up longer than three days. More than sixty percent of the domains hosting phishing kits were shuttered within twenty days, driving criminals to regularly update their kits and evolve their tactics.
Martin McKeay, Editorial Director of the State of the Internet/Security report for Akamai, stressed in a press release that phishing isn’t going away, and organizations need to prepare their employees for these attacks now.
“Phishing is a long-term problem that we expect will have adversaries continuously going after consumers and businesses alike until personalized awareness training programs and layered defense techniques are put in place,” McKeay said.
Phishing attacks are always changing to stay ahead of new technologies. New-school security awareness training can address this problem by teaching your employees how to identify the fundamental signs of social engineering.
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