India Inc lost Rs.171.94 cr to phishing in 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: In the free internet age, companies need to exercise extreme caution. That is a warning for India Inc, which lost Rs. 171.94 crores ($38.2mn) last year to phishing attacks, according to RSA, the security division of EMC, which released its findings on phishing attacks in 2011.

Furthermore, RSA established that in 2011 the total number of losses was Rs 5760 crore ($1.28bn) globally. The number of phishing attacks saw an increase in volume from 115,009 attacks recorded in first half of 2011 to 164,571, a 43% increase, during the second half of 2011. RSA has also ranked India in the top 5 most targeted countries for phishing attacks.

In 2011, approximately one in every 300 emails circulating the web, was deemed to contain elements pointing to phishing. Most phishing content targeted the public sector, which was followed by the SME business sector. A majority of these were targeted phishing attacks aimed at leveraging known brands in fake emails that attempt to fool email recipients.

In its October Fraud report, RSA had estimated that the worldwide losses from phishing attacks alone amounted to over $520 million during H1 2011.

The number of phishing attacks identified by RSA in September increased by 45%, setting a new all-time high of 38,970 attacks. This increase was largely attributed to repeated attacks on a handful of large financial institutions which have been heavily targeted throughout the past few months.