Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) received more than 30,000 reports of cyber incidents in the second half of 2023, more than double the amount received in the second half of 2022.
The NCSC said in a press release, “This increase is mainly down to job offer scams and calls from fraudsters claiming to be police officers. Fraud attempts were among the most frequently reported incidents, with the 'CEO' and 'invoice manipulation' scams being particularly commonplace.”
The number of reported phishing attacks also more than doubled last year.
“5536 phishing reports were received, more than twice as many as in the same period last year (2179 reports),” the NCSC says. “What is known as 'chain phishing' is particularly worth mentioning: phishers hack email inboxes and then send emails to all the addresses stored in the mailbox.
As the sender is likely to be known to the recipients, there is a high probability that they will fall for the scam and respond to the phishing mail. The phished email accounts are then used to write once again to all the contacts they hold.”
The Centre also observed an increase in attacks assisted by AI tools. While the number of these attacks is still low, the NCSC expects these techniques to increase in the future.
“There was also an increase in reports of attempted fraud involving the use of AI,” the NCSC says. “Cyber criminals use AI-generated images for sextortion attempts, to pretend to be celebrities on the phone, or to perpetrate investment fraud. Although the number of reports of such incidents is still comparatively low, the NCSC believes that these are the first attempts by cyber criminals to explore how AI might be used for future cyberattacks.”
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