Islamabad:
Pakistan witnessed an 18% increase in Phishing attempts in 2024 compared to 2023, the famous multinational cybernetics security firm Kaspersky revealed Wednesday, since cybercriminals continued to capitalize on the brands known to steal credentials or install malware.
He said he blocked 26% more Phishing attempts worldwide in the last calendar year, compared to the previous year. He added that users found more than 125 million attacks involving malicious email attached files. “In Pakistan there was an increase of 18%,” he said.
The increase in phishing attempts between May-Julio is traditionally linked to the vacation season, when scammers frequently try to attract travelers with scams that involve false airlines and hotels of hotels, misleading tourism packages and offers too good to be true.
Phishing is a type of cyber attack where attackers try to deceive people to reveal confidential information, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers or other personal data. This is generally disguising as a reliable entity into email, text messages or false websites, etc.
Kaspersky said cybercriminals continued to capitalize on the brands known as Booking, Airbnb, Tiktok and Telegram to steal credentials or install malware. An ongoing campaign, he said, had been attacking Tiktok Shop users.
“The cybercounts created false login pages designed to steal the credentials of the vendors. In addition, the scammers capitalized the trend news, orchestrating fraud schemes that involve the bombing issues, for example, the game of cryptocurrency Hamster Kombat and Ton Wallets,” he added.
“While phishing’s central mechanics and scams remain unchanged, attackers constantly refine their costumes. They capitalize on the news of trend, the issue driven by excess and even combine the brand of multiple companies on a single Phishing page to improve the efficiencies of their campaigns.”
Olga Svistunova, a security expert in Kaspersky, said that the tools promoted by AI helped cybercriminals create highly convincing false websites, which makes fraud more difficult to detect. “These evolution tactics represent a growing risk, not only for financial security but also for the protection of personal identity,” Svistunova warned.
To avoid becoming a phishing victim, scam or malicious messages, Kaspersky experts advised users who only open emails and click if they were sure they could trust the sender.
