Germany marks nearly 40 thousand e-banking phishing cases since 2008

Phishing in the e-banking sector remains a lucrative activity for cybercriminals, and it entails a variation of digital identity theft. This type of scam usually implies a targeted victim opening an email or text message with a malicious link which can lead to the installation of malware, the freezing of the system as part of a ransomware attack, or the revealing of sensitive information.

According to the research, the number of officially reported phishing attacks in Germany tripled between 2008 and 2010 and reached its first peak in 2011 with 6,422 cases. In 2014, the number of phishing attacks in Germany reached almost 7,000 incidents. Since then, it has been decreasing for about 40% in year-on-year time, resulting in 723 cases in 2018.

Still, the downsizing trend in the number of German e-banking phishing cases also reflects some significant changes in this type of cyber-attack. Since mass phishing waves are easier to detect, most of the attacks have become personalised and highly targeted.

The 2019 data show SaaS and webmail sites continue to be the most prominent targets of phishing globally. Phishers continue to harvest credentials to these online industries, using them to compromise legitimate business emails and access corporate SaaS accounts. Nearly 40% of all phishing attacks in the first half of 2019 were targeted towards payment services and the financial industry.