Phishing Crimeware APWG Quarter 1 2016 Report
The following is an extract of the most recent APWG Report Q1 2016.
The full APWG report can be viewed at – http://docs.apwg.org/reports/apwg_trends_report_q1_2016.pdf
Phishing Report Scope
The APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report analyzes phishing attacks reported to the APWG by its member companies, its Global Research Partners, through
the organization’s website at http://www.apwg.org, and by email submissions to
[email protected]. APWG also measures the evolution, proliferation, and propagation of crimeware by drawing from the research of member companies.
1st Quarter 2016 Phishing Activity Trends Summary
- The number of phishing website observed by APWG increased 250% from the last quarter of 2015 through the first quarter of 2016
- The Retail/Services sector remained the most targeted industry sector during the first quarter of 2016 with 43% of attacks
- The number of brands targeted by phishers in the first Quarter remained constant – ranging from 406 to 431 brands
- The USA continued it’s position at top of the list of nations hosting phishing websites
- In Q1 2016, 20 million new malware samples were captured
- The world’s most infected countries are led by China, where 57% of computers are infected, followed by Taiwan (49%) and Turkey at 42.5%.
Statistical Highlights for 1st Quarter 2016
Number of unique phishing website detected – 289,371
Number of unique phishing email reports received by APWG from consumers – 557,964
Number of brand targeted by phishing campaigns – +400 for each month, Jan, Feb, Mar
Country hosting the most phishing website – USA
Phishing URL containing some of the target name – +50% each month
The 250% increase in phishing activity from the last quarter of 2015 provides some cause of concern.
In the APWG report Crimeware is defined as code designed with the intent of collecting information on the end user in order to steal the user’s credentials. Phishing based keyloggers have tracking components, which attempt to monitor specification (and specific organisations, such as financial institution, retailers and e-commerce merchants) in order to target specific information. The most common types of information are access to financial-based websites, e-commerce sites, and web-based mail sites.
APWG members reported more than 20 million new malware samples, slightly higher than for the sample quarter in 2015. Trojans were the most common type of malware, as they have been for years. Ransomware numbers increased significantly.
The full APWG report can be viewed at – http://docs.apwg.org/reports/apwg_trends_report_q1_2016.pdf
