"Almost Three-Quarters of All Phishing Sites Now Use SSL Protection"

2019 was one of the most dangerous years on record for online users. Researchers detected 162,144 phishing websites worldwide between October and December 2019, and 266,387 phishing attacks were recorded in July through September 2019. New research conducted by researchers at APWG also discovered an increasing use of SSL certificates on phishing websites. Over 2,148 confirmed phishing URLs were analyzed in Q4 2019. The most popular top-level domains used by the phishers were the generic .com, .org, .net, and .info TLDs. The increase in phishing sites using SSL certificates shows that one cannot rely on SSL alone to understand whether a website is safe or not. The researchers also found that Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes were becoming more sophisticated. In Q4, the average gift card dollar amount requested by a BEC actor was more than $1,600. The average dollar amount requested for wire transfer BEC attacks in Q4 was over $55,000. 

Help Net Security reports: "Almost Three-Quarters of All Phishing Sites Now Use SSL Protection"

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