ISLAMABAD: Over 709 million attempts to access phishing and scam websites in 2023, have been thwarted by Kaspersky’s anti-phishing system, marking a 40% increase compared to the previous year’s figures.

Usman Qureshi, Country Representative for Pakistan at Kaspersky told Business Recorder on Thursday that the phishing remains a prevalent threat in today’s digital landscape, constantly evolving to deceive unsuspecting users. Vigilance and skepticism are our strongest defenses against falling victim to these malicious schemes. Stay cautious, verify before you click, and protect your digital identity, Usman added.

He further informed that messaging apps, artificial intelligence platforms, social media services, and cryptocurrency exchanges were among the pathways most frequently exploited by threat actors to scam users.

Kaspersky’s annual analysis of the spam and phishing threat landscape revealed a persistent trend for 2022 and a marked increase in phishing attacks. This continued to escalate in 2023, surging by over 40%. Besides a significant spike in phishing activity observed in May and June, the number of attacks rose steadily throughout the year. This trend could be linked to the onset of the holiday season, during which scammers commonly propagate travel-related scams, such as counterfeit airline tickets, tours, and enticing hotel deals.

Additionally, Kaspersky experts have observed a surge in attacks spread via messaging platforms. Kaspersky solutions thwarted 62,127 attempts to redirect via phishing and scam links on Telegram, a notable 22% increase in such threats from the last year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024