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Seven per cent of Internet users through Kaspersky in Nigeria were victims of phishing in 2022, the company has disclosed.
According to the Kaspersky which is an anti-virus provider firm, 8.7 per of its individuals and corporate users were affected by phishing attacks in 2022.
It stated that 31.1 per cent of financial phishing attempts in Nigeria were through websites of fake payment systems, 51.2 per cent through fake online stores, and 17.8 per cent through fake online bank portals.
A security expert at Kaspersky, Olga Svistunova, said, “Phishing is one of the most prevalent and pernicious threats in the cybersecurity landscape.
“Being the gateway to many of the worst cyber threats, phishing pages are the first step in a long chain of events that can result in identity theft, financial loss, and reputational damage for both individual consumers and businesses. It’s crucial for everyone to understand the threat and take action to protect themselves.”
The firm added that it blocked 507,851,735 attempts to access fraudulent contents globally in 2022, twice the number of attacks it thwarted in 2021.
Kaspersky revealed this in its ‘Spam and Phishing in 2022’ report. It said, “In Africa, 8.7 per cent of individuals and corporate users were affected by phishing: attacks on their devices were detected and stopped.
“In South Africa, the share of users affected by phishing stands at 9.7 per cent, followed by Kenya at 8.4 per cent, and Nigeria at seven per cent.”
The firm explained that while spam and phishing attacks were not complex from a technological standpoint, they relied on sophisticated social engineering tactics, making them highly dangerous to those who are not aware of them.
It stated that fraudsters had become skilled at creating phishing web pages that were identical to the original websites, and collected private user data or encouraged the transfer of money to fraudsters targeting both individuals and organisations.
It added that the most attacked sector was delivery service with fraudsters sending fake emails pretending to be from well-known delivery companies, and claiming there is an issue with the delivery.
The firm said once victims replied to the email and fell for the scam, they could lose their identity and banking information.
“With financial phishing, the most commonly targeted categories were online stores and online financial services,” it stated.
It added, “Among the financial phishing attempts in Nigeria, 31.1 per cent were through websites of fake payment systems, 51.2 per cent through fake online stores and 17.8 per cent through fake online bank portals.”
The firm also revealed that there was an increase in the distribution of attacks through messengers, with the majority of its blocked attempts coming from WhatsApp in 2022.
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