India Inc lost $52.9 mn in Q3 2013 due to phishing attacks

NEW DELHI, INDIA: RSA, The Security Division of EMC, today announced the findings of its Q3 2013 Fraud Report, ranking India fourth most targeted country by phishing attacks receiving 3 per cent of the total attack volume.

Other countries targeted by phishing attacks were US (53 per cent), Germany (17 per cent), UK (8 per cent) and South Africa (3 per cent). In top countries by attacked brands' India ranked third with 7 per cent of the total phishing volume worldwide. The US with 27 per cent and UK with 12 per cent topped the chart.

As per the report, RSA identified 46,119 phishing attacks in September globally with a rise in 36 per cent increase as compared to the month of August (33, 861). Phishing attacks in the month of September also mark the highest number of attacks in this quarter while July 2013 saw 45,232 numbers of attacks.

Top countries to host these phishing attacks include US (42 per cent), Canada (9 per cent), Germany (5 per cent) and UK (4 per cent).

As per the RSA AFCC report, number of phishing attacks recorded monthly is known to vary, and there is limited capability to forecast a trend that is so depen dent on fraudster resources.

Although total is often tricky to predict, some seasonal trends do repeat every year such as the holiday shopping season when a rise in phishing attacks is expected.

Other highlights of the report are:

* Total amount of losses incurred in third Quarter of 2013 are $1.66 Billion.

* Brands in the U.S., UK, India and Australia were targeted by almost 50 per cent of phishing attacks in Q3 2013.

* U.S. remained the top country on the chart, targeted with 53 per cent of the total phishing volume in Q3 2013.

* U.S. Inc. incurred a loss of over $882 million followed by Germany with $294 million and UK with $133 million.