New figures from cybersecurity firm Smarttech247 show an increase of 60% in the number of phishing attacks against business in 2022.
The company says that 78% of the attacks were aimed at stealing personal information, 13% were trying to steal login credentials, 5% were trying to compromise a business and 4% targeted malicious file delivery.
The majority of malware email attacks aimed to deliver the QBot Malware, a banking Trojan that steals financial data, browser information, keystrokes and credentials.
Smarttech247's figures show a 20% rise in supplier attacks during 2022, some of which can result in the theft of up to €1m each.
A typical case of this would be Invoice Redirect Fraud, which sees a malicious actor pretend to be a supplier of goods or services that someone already does business with and requests that the bank account details recorded for the legitimate supplier are changed on the victim's financial system.
CEO of Smarttech247 Raluca Saceanu will be discussing the figures at the upcoming Zero Day Con cybersecurity event which takes in Dublin next month.
"Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated, requiring human interaction with legitimate resources before redirecting users to malicious resources," Ms Saceanu said.
"Threat actors use this method to bypass email security solutions such as a sandbox, because that measure cannot resolve a captcha or a form," she added.
Smarttech247 says certain businesses are more likely to be targeted by cyberattacks, these include healthcare, education, manufacturing, and utility companies.
Organisations are being urged to stay vigilant and take necessary precautions to protect themselves from cyber-attacks such as regularly updating software, using strong passwords, being cautious when opening emails and attachments from unknown sources, and staying informed about current cyber threats.
