Phishing attacks are on the increase

A recent article (August 2024) in The Hacker News reported a significant year on year increase in the number of phishing attacks, with the vast majority of businesses reporting that they had been impacted by such attacks.

And we can report that we have ourselves noticed a significant increase in phishing emails purporting to be from our hosting provider arriving in our inbox.

The Hacker News article (see link below) identifies that what lies behind the recent surge in phishing attacks is the advent of AI and PhaaS or 'Phishing-as-a-Service'.

AI and PhaaS apparently make it easier than ever for threat actors to create content for use in pishing campaigns, for example malicious emails and deepfake videos.

What can be done to avoid falling victim to phishing attacks?

For starters we should all be more cautious when receiving emails and for that matter any form of communication, whether anticipated or not.

The recent plethora of emails which we received purporting to be from our hosting provider were thankfully not very convincing.

They did however provide pause for thought.

And no doubt some unwitting recipient did click on the link so conveniently provided in the body of the email.

What saved us from falling victim to these phishing emails was our heightened state of awareness that such attacks are on the increase.

So what did we do instead of clicking on the link provided?

We visited the server directly to investigate further the subject matter of the emails - the issues referred to were non-existent.

And we forwarded the emails to the phishing@ email address provided by our hosting provider.

Learn more about phishing attacks

The article usefully published by The Hacker News (see link below) will help you better understand the tactics used by threat actors and implement more effective security measures.

And thereby reduce the risk of falling victim to phishing attacks.

Read more: How Phishing Attacks Adapt Quickly to Capitalize on Current Events.