Google and Amazon Were the Most Imitated Brands Used for Phising Attacks in June Quarter: Report

“Hackers leverage a variety of methods to send links to deceptive websites, redirecting users during their web browsing experiences. Typically, the intention of a hacker is to steal credentials, personal information or payments,” said the researchers. Facebook was fifth in the overall tally, followed by Microsoft (7 per cent), Outlook (3 per cent), Apple (2 per cent), Netflix (2 per cent), Huawei (2 per cent) and PayPal (2 per cent).

Email phishing exploits were the second most common type after web-based exploits, compared to Q1 where email was third. “The reason for this change may be the easing of global Covid-19 related restrictions, which have seen businesses re-opening and employees returning to work,” said the report.

“Almost 15 per cent of phishing attacks trace to mobile. Facebook, WhatsApp and then PayPal are the most imitated brands on mobile, respectively,” it added. In late June, the researchers witnessed a fraudulent website which was trying to imitate the login page of Apple’s cloud services iCloud. “The purpose of this website was to try and steal iCloud login credentials and the domain was registered in Russia,” said the report.