PALO ALTO, Calif.–A new report said it has found “brand abuse cyber-attacks” have jumped 158% over Q1 2020.
According to the quarterly fraud and payments report from Outseer, it has found not just a “significant spike” in the attacks, but also in the shift to more precise payment authentication methods. The Q2 installment of the report features insights from January through March of 2021 as captured through the Outseer Global Data Network and collected while authenticating consumer transactions and investigating threats on behalf of Outseer customers, the company said.
According to the report, so-called Brand Abuse attacks, in which scammers impersonate companies through social media and published content, now represent the majority of fraud attacks, growing from 32% in Q4 2020 to 56% in Q1 2021.
Increased Use of Platforms
“This dramatic shift is attributed to the increased use of digital platforms including social media, web publishing, and cloud-based collaboration tools during the pandemic – all fertile hunting ground for fraudulent activity,” the company said in releasing the report.
Outseer reported phishing attacks designed to harvest user credentials represented 21% of all attack types for the quarter, followed by rogue mobile apps at 17%. Although the share of rogue mobile apps decreased slightly from the previous quarter, it is worth noting that this attack type increased by 14% in the same quarter vs. 2020, the company said.
At just 6% of mix, Trojan Horse attacks injecting malware designed to harvest sensitive information and user credentials dropped again as threat actors have shifted fraud strategies to Brand Abuse, Outseer added.
‘No Surprise’
“It comes as no surprise that fraud attack volume continues to grow at a record pace, considering the pronounced shift to digital commerce throughout the pandemic,” Armen Najarian, chief marketing officer of Outseer, said in a statement released with the analysis. “Global eCommerce spending grew 28% annually to $4.2 trillion in 2020, paving the way for more fraudulent behavior and more sophistication in attack types.”
Other Findings
According to Outseer, other notable insights from the Q2 Outseer Fraud & Payments Report include:
- Visibility into the more than 50,000 global cyber attacks
- Brand Abuse attacks volume share increased from the same time last year by 158% to 56% of all attacks in Q1 2021
- Phishing-based threats representing 21% of all attacks
- The U.S. accounts for 74% of all ISPs hosting phishing attacks
- The U.S was targeted by 16% of worldwide phishing attacks, with Canada at 22%
- The average value of fraudulent online banking transaction in the web channel ($7,367) more than 2x the average value of a fraudulent online banking transaction in the mobile channel ($3,368)
- Worldwide payment transaction volume authenticated with EMV 3-D Secure protocol grew by 59% year-over-year (Q1 2020 vs. Q1 2021)
- Worldwide payment transaction volume authenticated with the EMV 3-D Secure 2.0 protocol grew by 1667% year-over-year (Q1 2020 vs. Q1 2021)