Phishing - Statistics

Crisis and Phishing

With the 2020 pandemic and crisis, phishing attacks have increased dramatically around the world. Cybercriminals have taken advantage of this to deceive and scam victims using current events.

Worldwide figures

FBI

According to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in their Internet Crime Report 2020, phishing was the most common type of cybercrime in 2020, and phishing incidents almost doubled in frequency, from 114,702 incidents in 2019, to 241,324 incidents in 2020.

Phishing and society

KnowBe4's phishing report revealed that the main sectors at risk vary according to company size, but that healthcare and manufacturing are among the most targeted, alongside education, construction, service companies and technology.

KnowBe4 2020 statistics

Belgium

In 2020, Belgium saw an unprecedented increase in the number of phishing registrations: 7424 reports were drawn up, three times as many as in 2019. This sharp increase was most evident at the start of the coronavirus crisis, during March and April last year, before dropping slightly over the summer and fluctuating around 700 reports per month in the autumn.

Belgian statistics on recorded phishing incidents

TOP 10 of 2020

In their “Brand Phishing Report Q2 2021”, Check Point researchers have published their list of the top 10 most spoofed brands during phishing for the second quarter of 2021.

Microsoft was once again the brand most frequently targeted by cybercriminals, as in the first quarter of 2021 and the last of 2020.

The brands most used in phishing attacks in the first and second quarters of 2021

The podium is therefore as follows for the second quarter of 2021:

1. Microsoft 45%

2. DHL 26%

3. Amazon 11%

4. Bestbuy 4%

5. Google 3%

6. Linkedin 3%

7. Dropbox 1%

8. Chase 1%

9. Apple 1%

10. Paypal 1%