Some 41 pct of phishing attacks in Austria finance-related: report
Xinhua, February 13, 2015 Adjust font size:
A number of 40.8 percent of all phishing attacks in Austria blocked by Russian security software company Kaspersky in 2014 were targeted at the financial data of users, the company said in its Financial Cyber Threats in 2014 report on Thursday.
The figures mark an 11 percent increase over 2013, and were divided into 30 percent of cyber criminals using the names of known banks in their phishing attacks, 6 percent using online payment service names, and 5 percent using online store names.
As part of the attacks, attempts are made to lure victims into giving over sensitive information such as login details and passwords on fake websites that mimic popular legitimate variants such as those of Amazon, eBay, and Apple.
The financial data of Austrians was also targeted significantly more than the 29 percent global average, the Kaspersky figures showed.
General Manager of Kaspersky Lab DACH Holger Suhl said he believes however that in future cyber criminals will increasingly target banks directly and less so their customers.
Kaspersky investigated various such attacks in 2014, including a bank robbery on the payment system of a Russian bank, where Suhl said a "targeted social engineering attack" was used to transfer large sums of money directly into the accounts of the criminals. Endit