According to new research produced by Tessian, corporate and end-users should be wary of an uptick in phishing attacks for the final quarter of 2021. Tessian found that this is when the most malicious emails are likely to be distributed after analyzing four billion messages sent between July 2020 and July 2021. Tessian outlined its findings in the Spear Phishing Threat Landscape 2021 report. The report states that 45% more malicious emails were sent out in October, November, and December of 2020 than the previous quarter. There are also far more opportunities for threat actors to capitalize on current events, such as holidays and current events.
November 2020 saw the most significant spike, with roughly 90,000 malicious emails detected during the week of the Black Friday sales. Black Friday will likely remain one of the top phishing threats this year, with cybercriminals leveraging the deals and public interest. Organizations should be diligent in training employees to identify phishing emails to prevent a breach. The most common tactics observed by Tessian included impersonation techniques, domain impersonation, and account takeover, with the most spoofed brands being Microsoft, ADP, Amazon, Adobe, and Zoom.
Read More: Malicious Email Surge Predicted for Q4
