Check Point Software Technologies, a leading solutions provider for security in the cyberspace, published its new report “Brand Phishing Report» for the fourth quarter of 2019. The researchers included in this report, the brands /company names that hackers exploited, by imitating them, during the fourth quarter of 2019, in order to steal personal data and/or banking credentials from the victims.

According to Check Point, during a “brand-phishing” attack, criminals are trying to emulate the official page of a famous brand by making a fake page, which looks exactly like the original. They also use a similar domain name or URL. The link leading to the fake page can be sent to victims via e-mail or text message. The fake website usually contains one form in which users enter credentials, payment information or other personal information. All this information is sent to hackers.

Which are the top phishing brands for the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Check Point?

Phishing brands are presented based on how often they appear in phishing attempts:

• Facebook (18%)
• Yahoo (10%)
• Netflix (5%)
• PayPal (5%)
• Microsoft (3%)
• Spotify (3%)
• Apple (2%)
• Google (2%)
• Chase (2%)
• Ray-Ban (2%)

Top Phishing platform-based brands

Email (27% of all phishing attacks)

• Yahoo
• Rbs (Ray-Ban Sunglasses)
• Microsoft
• DropBox

Web (48% of all phishing attacks)

• Spotify
• Microsoft
• PayPal
• Facebook

Mobile (25% of all phishing attacks)

• Chase Mobile Banking
• Facebook
• Apple
• PayPal

According to Check Point researchers, cybercriminals use various ways of attack to deceive their victims and persuade them to pass on their personally data and payment details. To do so, they exploit known companies and brands as to mislead the victims, usually targeting them via spam emails. Sometimes, they monitor the victims for days or even weeks and carry out targeted attacks to steal money.

In the last two years, such attacks have increased significantly. Hackers are taking advantage of the increased usage of cloud-based emails which makes it easy for them to hide their true identity and present themselves as a credible company. Phishing will continue to be a major threat in 2020.

Check Point’s “Brand Phishing Report” was created by Check Point’s ThreatCloud intelligence, the largest cybercrime collaboration network that provides data on the most popular threats and attacks.