Research from cybersecurity firm Sophos, named 'Phishing Insights 2021', highlights how phishing attacks are on the rise worldwide.
Italy is not excluded, demonstrating the violation against Siae, which according to the latest investigations seems to have been hit by ransomware following a phishing email.
"In Italy - explains Sophos - the average cost incurred by all companies in 2021 to remedy the damage caused by this type of attacks, including downtime, working hours and ransoms paid, is 0.68 million dollars".
To further confirm the trend, Check Point Software Technologies, through Check Point Research, has released the new 'Brand Phishing Report'. The analysis highlights which brands were most imitated by cybercriminals in the third quarter of the year, in an attempt to deceive users through phishing. From August to September 2021, 29% of all attack attempts relied on Microsoft. Amazon stole second place from DHL, accounting for 13% of phishing attempts versus 11% in the previous quarter.
Both brands, for analysts, could see a further leap in the particular cybercrime sector, between now and December.
"Criminals will try to take advantage of online shopping for the holiday season," says Check Point Software.
The rest of the top ten sees Bestbuy (8%), Google (6%), WhatsApp (3%), Netflix (2.6%), LinkedIn (2.5%), Paypal (2.3%), Facebook (2.2%).
Once stolen, often user information, including sensitive and payment data, is sold in packages on the dark web.
A separate report from IT firm Bitglass found that stolen data spreads across the 'dark' network eleven times faster today than it was six years ago.
