New Delhi, April 30 (FN Bureau) The evolution of IT has made life easy but it has also given rise to the “phishing scams” as the world witnessed 60 percent increase in phishing attacks in 2023 and India has emerged third most targeted country after the USA and the UK, says a report by Zscaler. Zscaler, the leader in cloud security, on Tuesday announced the release of the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Phishing Report, which analyzes 2 billion blocked phishing transactions across the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, the world’s largest cloud security platform, between January and December 2023.
“The advancement of the nation’s digital infrastructure, growing population of internet-connected users and extensive use of online financial transactions has undoubtedly led to an escalation in numbers and sophistication of phishing attacks in the nation,” shared Sudip Banerjee, CTO, Asia Pacific & Japan at Zscaler. Vishing (voice phishing) and deepfake phishing attacks are on the rise as attackers leverage generative AI to amplify social engineering tactics. The US, UK, India, Canada and Germany were the top five countries targeted by phishing scams, it said. Zscaler Research Observed over 79 Million Phishing Attempts In India, ranking third globally as India experienced the highest number of phishing attacks amongst Asia Pacific & Japan markets, accounting for 33 per cent of phishing attempts in the region, the report stated. The technology industry faced close to 33 percent of overall phishing attacks in India, the highest concentration among industries, it said, adding Microsoft remains the most “imitated brand”, with 43.1 percent of phishing attempts targeting it.
The data revealed a year-over-year increase of nearly 60 per cent in global phishing attacks, fueled in part by the proliferation of generative AI-driven schemes such as voice phishing (vishing) and deepfake phishing. This year’s report includes actionable insights on phishing activity and tactics, along with offering best practices and strategies to enhance an organization’s security posture to prevent and minimize related threats. “Phishing remains a persistent and often underestimated threat within the cybersecurity landscape, growing more sophisticated as threat actors harness cutting-edge advancements in generative AI and manipulate trusted platforms to intensify attacks,” said Deepen Desai, CSO and Head of Security Research. In this context, the latest ThreatLabz insights are more crucial than ever for informing our strategies and strengthening phishing defenses. These findings emphasize the need for organizations to adopt a proactive layered approach that integrates a robust zero trust architecture with advanced AI-powered phishing prevention controls to effectively counteract these evolving threats, he added.