According to a study by RSA, the security division of EMC, India was the top target for phishing attacks in 2013 across Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) and Oceania, leading an estimated loss of more than $225 million. Globally, India ranked fourth in terms of phishing attack by volume in 2013.
Besides India, Australia and China were the other two top countries in the Asia-Pacific region that are being targeted by phishing attacks.
Through phishing, cyber criminals acquire sensitive information such as user names, passwords and credit card details by sending mails. Globally, loss due to phishing attack was close to $5.9 billion, which is significantly higher than $1.5 billion loss incurred during 2012. Further, the total number of phishing attacks in 2013 stood at 448,000 as against 445,000 in 2012.
RSA states that brands in the United States, United Kingdom, India and Canada accounted for 57 per cent of phishing attacks in the first half of 2013. The US and Canada remained the most targeted countries by phishing attacks in 2013 with a total of 63 per cent of the attacks. There has been a significant rise in phishing attacks in every quarter in 2013, with the fourth quarter seeing the most number of attacks.
Providing insights into security scenario in 2014, RSA, has stated that organisations may witness decline in phishing attacks due to growing adoption of email authentication, namely DMARC along with enhanced security policies. Moreover, big data analytics and broader intelligence collection will lead to faster detection and quicker mitigation, resulting in lower financial losses. RSA claims that, going forward, greater end user awareness will serve to reduce losses on account of security breaches.
