India ranks fifth amongst countries attacked by phishing in H1 2013

MUMBAI, INDIA: RSA, the Security Division of EMC, announced the findings of its H1 2013 Fraud Report, ranking India fifth most targeted country by phishing attacks receiving 4 percent of the total attack volume.

Other countries targeted by phishing attacks were US (52 percent) UK (11 percent), South Africa (6 percent) and Canada (5 percent). In top countries by attacked brands' India ranked third with 5 percent of the total phishing volume worldwide. The US with 29 percent and UK with 11 percent topped the chart.

As per the report, RSA identified 1, 81,600 phishing attacks in H1 2013 globally with month of May witnessing maximum number of 36,966 attacks. This was 27 percent increase in the total number of global phishing attacks as compared to the month of April. News on hacking of over 40,000 Facebook accounts in themonth of May, contributed to the attack surge in the first half of 2013.

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 dependent 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:

* Brands in the US, UK, India and Canada were targeted by almost 57 percent of phishing attacks in H1 2013.

* In H1 2013, 1,470 brands were targeted in phishing attacks, marking an increasefrom H2 2012.

* US remained the top country on the chart, targeted with 52 percent of the total phishing volume in H1 2013.