There has been an increase in AI-driven phishing attacks in Australia with research revealing that Australia is within the top 10 countries alongside US, UK, India and Germany targeted by phishing scams.
The latest annual ThreatLabz phishing report from cloud security company Zscaler reveals that Australia experiences a 479.3% surge in volume of phishing content, with ANZ Banking Group ranking 11th in the imitated brands of phishing attempts.
The Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Phishing Report analyses 2 billion blocked phishing transactions across the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform, between January and December 2023, where Australia is listed as one of the top 10 countries identified as the main origins of phishing attack.
Overall, Zscaler said 2023 proved a significant year for phishing activity in Australia.
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“The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Scamwatch service recorded nearly 109,000 reports of phishing-related scams, resulting in losses totaling AU$26.1 million. In the APJ region, India leads in Phishing attacks, with Australia following closely behind with 29,427,987 attacks. The report revealed that in the APJ region, Australia encountered 12.32% of phishing attempts and experienced a surge of 479.3% in the volume of phishing content hosted in Australia,” notes Zscaler.
Zscaler also notes that ThreatLabz data revealed a global year-over-year increase of nearly 60% in phishing attacks, fuelled in part by the proliferation of generative AI-driven schemes such as voice phishing (vishing) and deepfake phishing - and this year’s report includes actionable insights on phishing activity and tactics, along with offering best practices and strategies to enhance an organisation’s security posture to prevent and minimise related threats.
“The potential of AI is reshaping the cyberthreat landscape and redefining what is possible in the world of cyberattacks, particularly phishing scams. The findings show 29,427,987 attempts of phishing in Australia alone, emphasising the widespread threat posed by this type of attack” said Eric Swift, Area Vice President, ANZ at Zscaler. “Phishing remains a persistent threat and with the emergence of new technologies, it is crucial organisations understand the best practices to protect against phishing threats. The findings show a proactive zero trust approach with advanced AI-powered capabilities is imperative to address evolving threats."
Zscaler’s research found that manufacturing and services sectors maintain their position as the most targeted industries in Australia.
“In Australia, manufacturers experienced the highest number of phishing attacks between January and December 2023, with 5,984,195 attacks recorded in the manufacturing sector and 5,776,337 attacks in the services sector.
“Following these sectors were industries such as technology, government, education, finance and insurance, and retail and wholesale sectors in the region.”
The report shows that North America experienced more than half of all phishing attacks, with “Australia rounding out the top 10”.
In 2023, the United States (55.9%) emerged as the top country targeted by phishing scams, followed by the United Kingdom (5.6%) and India (3.9%). The high occurrence of phishing in the U.S. is attributable to its advanced digital infrastructure, large population of internet-connected users and extensive use of online financial transactions.
The majority of phishing attacks originated from the U.S., the U.K., and Russia, while “Australia entered the top 10 due to a 479% year-over-year surge in the volume of phishing content hosted in the country.” Zscaler reports.
Noting that the financial industry faces a nearly 400% increase in attacks, Zscaler observes that the finance and insurance sector experienced the highest number of overall phishing attempts, amounting to a 393% increase of attacks from the previous year - and “reliance on digital financial platforms provides ample opportunities for threat actors to carry out phishing campaigns and exploit vulnerabilities in this sector”.
“The manufacturing industry also experienced a significant uptick (31%) in phishing attacks from 2022 to 2023, underscoring the growing awareness of the industry's vulnerability. As manufacturing processes become more reliant on digital systems and interconnected technologies like IoT/OT, the risk of exploitation by threat actors seeking unauthorised access or disruption also grows.”
Zscaler says that Microsoft remains the most impersonated brand used in phishing attacks, and its ThreatLabz researchers identified enterprise brands such as Microsoft, OneDrive, Okta, Adobe and SharePoint as prime targets for impersonation due to their “widespread usage and the value associated with acquiring user credentials for these platforms”, and “ANZ Banking Group ranked eleventh among the top twenty enterprise brands imitated for phishing attacks”.
“Microsoft (43%) emerged as the top imitated enterprise brand in 2023, with its OneDrive (12%) and SharePoint (3%) platforms also ranking in the top five brands - serving as lucrative targets for cybercriminals aiming to exploit Microsoft’s vast user base,” Zscaler cautions.
On how a Zero Trust architecture can mitigate phishing attacks, Zscaler said that organisations can implement a Zero Trust architecture with advanced AI-powered phishing prevention controls to effectively defend against the ever-evolving threat landscape highlighted in the report.
Zscaler says that the Zero Trust Exchange platform helps prevent conventional and AI-driven phishing attacks at multiple stages of the attack chain by:
- Preventing compromise: TLS/SSL inspection at scale, AI-powered browser isolation and policy-driven access controls prevent access to suspicious websites.
- Eliminating lateral movement: Users connect directly to applications, not the network, while AI-powered app segmentation limits the blast radius of a potential incident.
- Shutting down compromised users and insider threats: Inline inspection prevents private application exploit attempts, and integrated deception capabilities detect the most sophisticated attackers.
- Stopping data loss: Inspection of data in-motion and at-rest prevents potential theft by an active attacker.
For a deeper dive into best practices for protecting your organisation and to download the full Zscaler ThreatLabz 2024 Phishing Report, visit https://www.zscaler.com/campaign/threatlabz-phishing-report.