Social Media attacks are on the rise, q2 report shows

In a Phishlabs article talking about the Threat Trends and Intelligence Report, we learn that social media and fraud are up.

The article from Phishlabs this time is Fraud, Impersonation Fuel Q2 Increase in Social Media Attacks and I don’t think I should be surprised about this one.

The most interesting thing I saw was a paragraph that states that organizations will experience 95 social media attacks per month on average. While I don’t know what the numbers were before, actors take social media and just abuse it. That paragraph says:

The average organization can now expect to experience nearly 95 malicious attacks on social media per month. This is a more than 100% increase in threatening incidents over the course of a year. The threat types in this dataset do not include the considerable volume of attacks solely targeting a brand’s reputation.

So not only do we have to worry about our social media, whatever brand we work for or use, but now we’ve got more attacks to deal with? Wonder if its time to get off of social media? I hardly use mine, although I’m glad I have it instead of someone impersonating me and taking my picture and making it their own.

I’ve created accounts for my network, the braille2000 accessibility pages and of course the Mix has their own twitter, but we’re small compared to other well-known single brands like Target and Walmart just to name two.

That doesn’t matter to actors though, they’ll go big, small and anything in between.

We haven’t even mentioned every service that Social Media could cover either, so the footprint could be covering multiple platforms.

Under top threats, the thing that jumps out at me is the first paragraph I think. It says:

The impersonation or spoofing of a brand or executive on social media contributed to more than 40% of share of all incidents in Q2. This is the second quarter Impersonation attacks have represented the majority of threats, despite experiencing a 6.1% decrease from Q1.

Of course, executives are not out of the loop, as the very next paragraph should make them sit up straight. It states:

Notably, Executive Impersonation has climbed steadily for four consecutive quarters to represent more than 15% of share of attacks. Impersonating a corporate figure on social media is unchallenging and effective for threat actors, as personal images and commentary are increasingly accessible online. A positive executive presence on social media is indicative of the health of a business, and misleading or malicious accounts tied to the face of an organization have the ability to cause lasting brand damage.

There’s plenty more, and if this interests you, please read it. You won’t be sorry, but yet maybe you won’t sleep either. I’m not responsible.

Again, the article is Fraud, Impersonation Fuel Q2 Increase in Social Media Attacks for your reading pleasure.

Before I go, please make sure you read the section on attacks by industry.

In Q2, the Financial Industry represented the majority of social media incident volume, fueled in part by increased fraud and impersonation attacks. Nearly 70% of attack volume targeted the group, consisting of National/Regional Banks, Other Financial Services, Credit Unions, Cryptocurrency and Payment Services.

Banks were the most targeted industry in Q2, contributing to 30.5% of share of incidents. National and Regional Banks consistently experience the highest level of abuse compared to all other industries. Other Financials (i.e. asset management and financial advisory firms) came in second, after experiencing a 6.2% increase over Q1 to represent 17.6% of incidents.

There are other details about credit unions, and computer software companies that are notable within this article.

Retail faired no different, althought they declined in q2, the number of incidents rose mainly because of brands and social media.

Other industries abused included:

• Cryptocurrency 6.2% (+1.8%) (rise)
• Dating 5.1% (-1.7%) (decrease)
• Payment Services 4.8% (-1.6%) (decrease)
• Staffing & Recruiting 1.4% (-0.4%) (decrease)
• All Others 2.3% (-) (possibly steady)

There are plenty of links that lead to other types of info, and a link to download the full report is also available.

Now, its time to go, so we’ll be in touch with each and every one of you on the podcast set, if not commenting on our blog or on the list. Keep safe!