South Africa is the second most targeted country globally when it comes to phishing attacks, with the resultant cost totaling over US$320 million in 2013, according to Drew van Vuuren, chief executive officer (CEO) of information security firm 4Di Privaca.
According to the company, South Africa accounts for five per cent of all phishing attacks globally.
“Phishing can be defined as an act of sending an email to the user in order to steal his personal information such as bank account details, credit card information. The email falsely claims to be from an established organisation and makes the user surrender his private information that will be used for identity theft,” the company said.
4Di Privaca said the most common form of phishing attack is known as “spear phishing”, a highly targeted attack bypassing traditional security defences.
“Most companies choose to downplay the inevitable threat that phishing attacks pose, despite the many publicised cases that have resulted in personal, corporate, financial and reputational damage,” the company said.
“The targeted nature of spear phishing can unleash a major attack on corporate well-being and an attacker may gain access to e-mail systems, social media, banking details and corporate log-in details. Another impact of successful phishing attacks is reputational, with the impact of the attack being almost immeasurable. Additionally, high profile individual victims can also take hits to their reputation, which in turn harms the company’s brand.”
HumanIPO reported this month one-third of all phishing attacks in 2013 targeted financial institutions and their customers.
Internet security firm Kaspersky said these attacks were up 8.5 per cent globally, year-on-year.
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