Nearly 75K financial phishing attempts targeting Indian firms detected in 2023: Report

NEW DELHI: Nearly 75,000 financial phishing attempts targeting companies of various sizes within India were detected last year, a new report revealed on Wednesday.

The figures reflect clicks on phishing links placed in various communication channels, including emails, fraudulent websites, messengers, social media, etc, according to the global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

'Financial phishing' is a type of phishing which refers to fraudulent resources related to banking, payment systems and digital shops.

"Financial phishing messages usually take the form of fake notifications from banks, providers, e-pay systems and other organisations. The notification will try to encourage a recipient, for one reason or another, to urgently enter/update their personal data," explained Jaydeep Singh, General Manager for South Asia at Kaspersky.

"The scammers usually use the fear technique to convince the users to share their confidential financial and personal data by providing a seemingly important reason. Such messages usually contain threats to block an account if a recipient does not fulfil the requirements therein," he added.

As per a recent study, one in four (24 per cent) cyber incidents against businesses in India were due to employees intentionally violating security protocol.

“With the rise of Generative AI, it becomes easier for cybercriminals to create more convincing phishing messages, making financial phishing more prevalent. Threat groups also use these tactics to deceive employees and then crack into corporate networks," Singh said.