From January to June 2024, Kaspersky anti-phishing technologies detected 336,294 phishing attacks launched at organizations and businesses in the Southeast Asia.
The attacks were impersonating e-commerce, banking, and payment brands and was aimed at stealing credentials and other sensitive data.
Financial phishing attacks are rapidly increasing in the country as cybercriminals continuously evolve and adapt their tactics, making them sophisticated.
The number of attacks rose by 41 percent compared to the corresponding period last year, underpinned by increased digital adoption and use of artificial intelligence and automation by threat actors to render convincing contents and target victims more effectively.
“The pool of potential victims has grown larger over the past few years given the increased usage of online banking and digital financials services. Kaspersky experts attribute this sharp rise to an increase in fraudulent activity rather than a decline in user vigilance: cybercriminals are becoming more aggressive in their pursuit of users’ data and money, including for those from corporate devices,” said Adrian Hia, managing director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.
Financial phishing is a type of phishing which refers to fraudulent resources related to banking, payment systems and digital shops.
Through financial phishing, attackers deceptively manipulate victims to divulge their personal and valuable information such as login credentials to financial accounts, as well as other personal or corporate information that is stored in those accounts.
They are employing advanced social engineering schemes masquerading as financial institutions, to deceive, invoke fear and exhort victims, and in some instances impersonating charitable organizations to trick victims into making contributions.
Thailand logged the highest number of financial phishing attacks at 141,258, followed by Indonesia with 48,439. Vietnam experienced 40,102 attacks while Malaysia registered 38,056 phishing attacks related to financial matters.
Singapore and the Philippines chalked up the least number of this threat at 28,591and 26,080, respectively. Thailand and Singapore both registered the two highest increases of 582 percent and 406 percent, respectively, compared to corresponding period last year.
“Financial phishing will continue to evolve in this region and sectors like banking, insurance and ecommerce will be remain prime targets. Apart from traditional phishing emails, cybercriminals will also continue to exploit social media and messaging platforms to spread fraudulent links, fake pages and apps,” added Hia.
“With deepfakes growing prevalent, we will also see increase fake videos and voice messages that are highly sophisticated and harder to detect. It is imperative now more than ever for companies to step up their security measures, by implementing robust security solutions, adopting best practices and training their workforce to raise awareness of cyber threats and how to protect themselves and their organizations.”
