India, that has about 137 million Internet users, accounted for 8 per cent of the total phishing attack volume worldwide in April 2013, after the US, UK and South Africa, a report by IT storage solutions firm EMC said.Phishing is a fraudulent practice of sending e-mails purporting to be from legitimate companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information. The May 2013 Fraud Report, prepared by RSA, the security division of NYSE-listed EMC, added that in April, 26,902 such attacks were launched globally, marking a 10 per cent increase in attack volume from March this year.
The US, with 46 per cent of the total phishing volume targeted against it in April, remained the top country during the period. The UK accounted for 11 per cent of the attacks and South Africa with 9 per cent of attack volume.”Phishing attacks in April 2013 have so far only shown a moderate increase over the previous month, but with constant headlines such as the recent announcement of over 40,000 Facebook accounts allegedly hacked, we may see a surge before the quarter is out,” the report said.
Although the total number of attacks is often tricky to predict, some seasonal trends do repeat every year such as the holiday shopping season when a rise in phishing is almost expected. Adding to that list, one can include large database hacks that release the information on millions of users on Internet, it added.
When it comes to phishing attacks on brands, India stood at the third spot after the US and the UK, the report said. Brands in the US, UK, India, Brazil and Australia accounted for almost 54 per cent of phishing attacks in April, it added. In April, 311 brands world over were targeted in phishing attacks, marking a 20 per cent increase from last month. Of these, 52 per cent endured five attacks or less, it said. Brands in the US were targeted by 29 per cent of total phishing volume in April, followed by brands in the UK at 10 per cent. Brands in India, Australia and Brazil collectively accounted for 15 per cent of the phishing volume.The US remained the top hosting country in April, hosting 47 per cent of global phishing attacks (down 4 per cent), while Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, UK and Russia together hosted just over 20 per cent of the volume.
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