How many of us have received strange emails from leading brands? Chances are if it looks weird, it’s because it is. It is quite common for referrer marks to be used for phishing actions, in which cybercriminals attempt to steal personal information or payment credentials from other individuals.
Check Point Research recently released the Brand Phishing Report for Q2 2023. It highlights the brands that cybercriminals imitated most frequently in April, May, and June 2023.
Main brands affected by phishing campaigns in the second quarter of 2023
- Microsoft (29%)
- Google (19.5%)
- apple (5.2%)
- Wells Fargo (4.2%)
- Amazon (4%)
- Walmart (3.9%)
- Roblox (3.8%)
- LinkedIn (3%)
- Home Depot (2.5%)
- Facebook (2.1%)
Microsoft is the most segmented brand, followed by Google and Apple
The technology company Microsoft is the brand most attacked by cybercriminals, going from third place in the first quarter of 2023 to first place in the second quarter. As you can see from the list above, this accounted for 29% of all phishing attempts.
According to the source, this figure can be partly explained by a phishing campaign in which cybercriminals targeted account holders with fraudulent messages about unusual activity on their accounts. Second on the list is Google, with 19.5% of all attack attempts. Completing the podium is Apple, with 5% of phishing attacks during the quarter in question.
It also stands out that, by industry, the technology sector was the most attacked, followed by the banking sector and social networks. Earlier this year, the source warned of a growing trend in phishing campaigns in the financial sector. This has continued for the last three months.
Take the example of US banking organization Wells Fargo, which ranked fourth this quarter due to a series of malicious emails requesting account information. The same was true for other schemes that imitated brands like Walmart and LinkedIn, which also entered the Top 10 in this report, at sixth and eighth places.