Kaspersky Lab released their analysis of the financial threat landscape in 2016, finding that almost half of all phishing attacks registered in 2016 by Kaspersky Lab’s heuristic detection technologies were aimed at stealing their victim’s money. Robert Capps, VP of Business Development at NuData Security commented below.
Robert Capps, VP of Business Development at NuData Security:
“It’s not a surprise that phishing is still a valid concern for cyber security professionals. The Internet is awash with stolen consumer data ripe for malicious use, providing fertile soil in which fraudsters can grow innovative attacks using purloined black-market data.
“Victims of stolen data are a natural target for phishing, since most major data breaches target login credentials, email addresses and passwords. This dataset is perfect to concoct nearly flawless phishing attacks, often by impersonating major organisations or financial institutions with which they normally interact online.
“Just educating the consumer about online risks is an uphill battle, and one that inevitably finds even the savviest consumer ensnared in some fraud scheme. As such, we need to take a step back and start respecting that the average consumer can’t be expected to avoid clicking something designed specifically to lure them in and empty their accounts. Instead of blaming the victims that are unlikely to become more adept at online security, we should find ways we can do our jobs better. We need to rely less on grandma upping her security game, and more on our collective ability to innovate and invent solutions that don’t use the goodies the fraudsters are suckering folks into giving up. In fact, there are many solutions out there right now that could render most phishing attacks obsolete by devaluing any benefit the fraudsters get out of it. Let’s get on with it and stop this.”
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