Phishing remains the predominant type of website attack in Europe

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Allot is dedicated to protecting networks and their users from all types of attacks including malware, ransomware, Phishing attacks, cryptojacking and more. Cyber Threat Report (Europe Edition, Q3 2020) is meant to be a knowledge tool in your arsenal against the cybercriminals whose goal is to disrupt your business and take advantage of your customers.

The data presented in this report is based on malware and other types of attacks that Allot NetworkSecure detected and blocked over the third quarter of the year (Q3 2020). It is notable that all of the events presented in this report were, in fact, stopped by the Allot solutions that are implemented amongst a considerable number of communication service providers in Europe of various sizes from local to multinational tier one players. In a time when businesses are experiencing radical interruptions resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic, cybercriminals have been ramping up their attacks, targeting people when they are more vulnerable to scams and other crimes. We have added an additional section to this report that describes these new threats.

Key highlights

• The average percentage of customers experiencing protection events during this period was 24% of security subscribers across Europe. It started at 23% in July and increased to 26% in September. The time people spend online and working from home contributes to the overall increase in the percentage of customers experiencing protection events.
• Among the main pre-blocked malicious URLs across Europe we observed significant difference between the two most blocked categories (Phishing and Adware Only) and the rest. Phishing ended up this quarter above 58% of the blocks, experiencing a very slight downward correction as mentioned in the previous report but remaining steady after that. Adware Only ended up on a clear decreasing tendency in the last quarter but remained constant for two months. In September Adware Only pre-blocks decreased by 6%.
• In Q3 2020 NetworkSecure pre-blocked 748,199,384 malicious URLs across Europe.
• Adware Only and Infection Only Download Blocks maintained consistent levels during the whole period, continuing the same pattern as during the previous quarter.
• The main Download Block categories during Q3 were Infection Only (47%) and Adware Only (39%).
• As many European countries eased out of the initial Covid lockdown and retured to normal, total blocks decreased from 241M in July to 238M in August. But as soon as the second wave hit Europe, the numbers quickly rose to new peaks, reaching 267M in September.

The most predominant types of attack in Europe

Phishing: it remains the predominant type of website attack in Europe

• Phishing represented 54% of blocks during Q3; just 1% Below the previous quarter
• Cybercriminals already used Phishing heavily, and the COVID-19 crisis only added additional fuel as they took advantage of the crisis to launch additional attacks that preyed on people’s fears.
• The damage from Phishing attacks includes; monetary loss, personal data theft, and compromised account credentials.
• Fake Phishing websites are nearly impossible to detect with the human eye.

Adware: The second most important type of threat remained Adware, estimated around 30% of total threats being blocked in Europe.

• In addition to the nuisance of increased appearance of online ads and sense of privacy loss, Adware infection can decrease the speed and quality of online experience.
• Adware is more than a mere nuisance and can cause serious damage. Like other malware, Adware can infect user terminals by redirecting to infected pages containing malware of Phishing downloaders.

Protected off-network: devices are not protected off-network.

• Their customers are only protected by NetworkSecure when using your network. If they connect to other networks or public Wi-Fi, they run the risk of downloading a virus.
• Additional malware on the device can cause a high amount of download blocks, especially in the Adware and Trojan-Bitcoin categories.
• Add EndpointSecure for off-network protection.

“In a time when businesses are experiencing radical interruptions resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic, cybercriminals have been ramping up their attacks, targeting people when they are more vulnerable to scams and other crimes”, Barry Spielman, Product Marketing Director, Allot Secure.

Access to the full report here.