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RSA Fraud Report 2013: India top phishing target in 2013 in APJ and Oceania region

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PANKAJ
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EMC's security division RSA announced the findings of its 2013 Fraud Report. As per the report, India emerged as the top nation in the APAC region in terms of phishing attacks by volume closely followed by Australia and China.

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The estimated loss in India from these attacks stood at $225 million, as compared to $5.9 billion worth of losses globally. In fact, the global losses were significantly higher as compared to $1.5 billion in 2012. In terms of volume, the total number of phishing attacks in 2013 stood at 448,126 against 445,004 in the previous year.

Report Highlights:

1) Brands in the US, UK, India and Canada were targeted by almost 57% of phishing attacks in the first half of 2013.

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2) USA and Canada remained the most targeted countries, with 63% of the phishing attacks directed at them.

3) There was a significant rise in phishing attacks every quarter in 2013, with Q4 seeing the highest number of attacks.

4) Top phishing targets in 2013:

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  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • Germany
  • India
  • South Africa
  • Canada
  • Netherlands
  • Colombia
  • Australia
  • Brazil

Phishing Forecast for 2014

1) Phishing volumes will not drop considerably, though a slight decline is possible, mainly due to the growing adoption of email authentication, namely DMARC, which together with tighter policies should help reduce phishing emails received by end users.

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2) Big data analytics and broader intelligence collection will lead to faster detection and quicker mitigation, resulting in lower financial losses. With millions of spam messages traversing the internet daily, separating the wheat from the chaff has become far more challenging.

3) Advancements in phishing techniques and methods also serve to add a layer of complexity when it comes to detection. Deploying analytics into the detection process provides a way to see though the noise and get to the phish faster. Coupled with broader intelligence collection, attacks may be prevented before they are launched.

4) Greater user awareness will serve to reduce losses. Cyber awareness has become a mainstream conversation topic, with people becoming more aware of the dangers in the digital world. More awareness translates into fewer losses.

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