Sixty two per cent of PC users in the Middle East claimed they are unable to recognise a phishing message or a fake website, according to a survey conducted by O+K Research at the request of Kaspersky Lab.
The standard data theft method is social engineering – a potential victim is lured onto an infected web page or is duped into opening a file attached to an e-mail. It is not always easy to recognise such a message, the survey revealed.
The survey revealed that 80 per cent of PC users check their e-mails regularly, 81 per cent communicate on social networks, and 54 per cent of users chat on the Internet regularly with their smartphones. ‘Cybercriminals who use phishing as a tool to steal data are primarily interested in gaining unauthorised access to social network accounts, accounts in online banking and payment systems, and e-shops.’
In June, 68 per cent of phishing messages related to such services were targeted at data theft, according to Kaspersky Lab. The results give indirect evidence that the mass messaging method bears fruit: about half of the O+K Research respondents noticed that they have already encountered suspicious correspondence in social networks or e-mails. ‘Forty three per cent of PC users in the region got a message with a suspicious link or an attachment, and 27 per cent of respondents got letters in the name of a bank (social network or another service) with a request for confidential information.’