"May 2021 Saw a 440% Increase in Phishing, The Single Largest Phishing Spike on Record"
Researchers at Webroot Brightcloud published some of their findings in their mid-year threat report recently. The researchers found that around half of businesses (45.49%) and consumers (52.35%), on average, saw at least one sustained additional infection in May 2021. In May 2021, there was a 440% increase in phishing, holding the record for the single largest phishing spike in a single month. Big brands continued to suffer from cyber extortion and ransomware in the 1st half of 2021. PayPal accounted for 1% of the top 200 phished brands but saw a 1,834% spike in May. The researchers also found that phishing attacks are increasingly targeting crypto exchanges and wallets. Observations by Webroot found that there was a 75% increase in Coinbase phishing pages using HTTPS immediately after Coinbase’s IPO. Researchers also found that technology supply chains were under attack in the 1st half of 2021. The management of companies and the enterprise industry showed a significant increase in malware infections, 57%, versus the global average.