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Social Media Attacks Double, Financial Sector Suffers Most - Report

Social Media Attacks Double, Financial Sector Suffers Most - Report
It is common knowledge that all kinds of cyberattacks have witnessed a massive surge since the pandemic set in. As per the Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report by PhishLabs, social media threats doubled last year. Here are some shocking statistics.

Some stats your way

  • Social media threats increased by 103% from January to December 2021. In December, organizations witnessed an average of 68 attacks per month.
  • Last year also set the record for social media as a threat channel, which affected the financial sector the most. Financial institutions suffered 33.8% attacks in Q1, which increased to 61.3% in Q4.
  • Hybrid vishing attacks via email surged 554% from Q1 to Q4 2021.
  • Seventy percent of ads for stolen data were placed on chat-based apps and carding marketplaces in the final quarter of 2021.

Impact on the financial sector

As stated above, phishing attacks against this sector increased by 27.5% from Q1 to Q4 2021. Banking, credit unions, payment services, and other financial business industries fall under this sector.
  • Banking accounted for the highest share (38.1%) of attacks in Q4, followed by payment services (12.7%).
  • In Q4, banking was targeted most frequently on the dark web. It accounted for a whopping 49.1% of all attacks, followed by credit unions (28.6%) and other financial services (5%).
  • All these represented 82.7% of dark web activities against the financial sector.

The bottom line

Apart from the financial sector, telecommunications, and retail sectors were the most affected by phishing attacks. Throughout last year, bad actors kept experimenting with various attack vectors to conduct successful campaigns. In addition, even conventional phishing methods were seen frequently. The rising volume of threats to enterprises highlights the necessity of strengthening the layers of defense.

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