Most impersonated sectors, brands in phishing examined

Hackread reports that organizations in the IT and technology industry were most spoofed in phishing scams between January 2020 and March 2024, followed by those in the banking and financial services sector.

Impersonation of Facebook/Meta across nearly 10,500 phishing scams over the four-year period has made it the most spoofed U.S. brand in phishing operations, followed by Apple and Microsoft, a report from Mailsuite showed. However, Facebook/Meta spoofing is far exceeded by the impersonation of telecommunications company au by KDDI, train firm JR East, and credit card entity JCB, all of which are based in Japan, during the same time frame.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and mounting attacks by North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group have been linked to the escalation of phishing scams aimed at Japanese organizations.

Such findings should prompt increased vigilance of received emails, as well as the utilization of more robust passwords across all online accounts.