According to troubling new data revealed in the Webroot Quarterly Threat Trends Report, the number of phishing websites skyrocketed during the past few months of 2017. In light of this massive increase, securing your sensitive data is about to become even more difficult. Hackers donโt care whether you have five clients or five thousandโthey will take advantage of your customers and employees either way. Read on to learn more about how your business can address this threat.
Millions of Platforms
Rather than coordinating long-term attacks, many phishing sites stay live for less than a day. Although they are only active for an average of four to eight hours, these sites can cause serious damage to small businesses. According to the Webroot report, more than 46,000 temporary phishing sites are created every single day. This adds up to over 1.385 sites each month, and represents a threefold increase since the same organization’s estimates in December of last year. In a report summarizing the final quarter of 2016, experts believed that only around 13,000 of these sites were launched each day.
Phishing websites are generally identified and blacklisted very quickly. By creating temporary “launching pads” for cyberattacks, hackers are able to avoid detection by standard security measures like block lists and firewalls. Since many large hosting providers do not configure their temporary testing URLs securely, hackers are able to host many malicious third-party sites through a single account. This means that they are able to create hundreds more online traps for the same amount of time and effort.
A Threat To Businesses
In addition to their increased frequency, these phishing sites are also becoming much more technically sophisticated and difficult for the average person to detect. Webroot reports that hackers are most likely to impersonate emails and webpages of highly trusted, multinational vendors. Popular sites like Google and Facebook, financial institutions like Chase Bank and PayPal, and social sharing sites like Dropbox and Yahoo were among the ten most frequently duplicated.
As it grows more and more difficult to determine which online content is genuine and which is misleading, the danger to individuals and small businesses increases. All it takes is one employee who isn’t paying attention to what they are clicking on, or one malicious email that slips past your security protocols, and you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars in lost files.
Defend Your Business — Get Help
Is your business prepared to face this new onslaught of cyberattacks? Are you confident in your current protection services and security tools? Digital Uppercut is here to help. With military-grade technology, round-the-clock support, and constantly evolving protection plans, we have the experience to keep you one step ahead of phishers. Call our team of experts at 818-913-1335 or contact us to learn more.