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New Data Privacy Regulation Deadline Spawns Phishing Attack Outbreak

As the deadline for the latest data privacy regulation compliance looms, cybercriminals are coming out in full force to take advantage of the timing to launch massive phishing campaigns against businesses and consumers.  Reports began to arise in recent weeks, showcasing popular and trusted brands being abused as the face of phishing attacks targeting consumers.  RSA has also noticed an increase in these phishing attacks in the wild as well as many more being reported by our customers.  “Don’t Miss Out” and “Let’s Stay in Touch” are the subject lines screaming out from consumers’ inboxes.

While phishing attacks cause pain for consumers, the implications on the corporate side are much larger.  Unlike the “spray and pray” approach often associated with consumer attacks, these more direct attacks – spear phishing – target specific individuals or organizations.  One consumer tricked equals one stolen credential.  The right enterprise employee tricked could equal millions of stolen credentials or worse.

The timing of trendy stories or pressing compliance deadlines to launch attacks is nothing new to cybercriminals.  They continue to use phishing tactics for one simple reason: they still work.  In RSA’s latest fraud report, phishing accounted for 48% of all attacks detected by RSA in the first quarter. 

The ability to provide early detection and alerts for suspicious phishing emails – whether targeting customers or employees – is critical.  For consumers, the goal of a phishing attack is most often to capture (Read more...)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from RSA Blog authored by Heidi Bleau. Read the original post at: http://www.rsa.com/en-us/blog/2018-05/gdpr-deadline-spawns-phishing-attack-outbreak.html