Record high vishing attacks reported

TechRepublic reports that voice phishing attacks have reached their highest levels yet, with the number of such attacks increasing by 550% during the past year. Vishing attacks also reached their monthly peak in March, surpassing a previous record set last September, as well as overtook business email compromise as the second most prevalent email security threat since the third quarter of 2021, according to an Agari and PhishLabs report. Moreover, the rate of potentially harmful emails targeted at employees rose by 18.3% between 2021 and 2022, with attempted credential theft being the most used attack vector. Phishing links were used to deliver 80% of credential theft attempts, which has been a consistent leading threat among employees. The report also showed that Qbot was the most commonly used malware in such attacks. However, malicious multi-stage email attacks are being increasingly used by threat actors instead of traditional vishing campaigns, said HelpSystems Principal Strategist John LaCour.