Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Rising Cyber Attacks

The year 2020 has been daunting so far, but the most dangerous aspect that prevails in the global market is the rising number of phishing attacks around all the industries. Many research studies have indicated that with Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching, the impact and the number of phishing attacks is set to increase on a global scale. Security researchers from around the world have already begun to notice a significant spike in the number of phishing attacks which can be seen as a build up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday taking place on November 27th, and November 30th respectively. Some of the recently published reports have stated that there is an increase of over 13 times in the last six weeks as far as phishing emails are concerned. WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS? You might be thinking that such information is irrelevant because everybody in the corporate world and among the general public understand the severity of malicious cyber attacks, and the impact of the same is pretty much evident if we take a look at the daunting statistics of 2020. But what you seem to overlook, is the fact that these numbers aren’t exactly painting a better picture because none of the easily accessible literary pieces of evidence would tell you that some of the most prevalent phishing campaigns have witnessed an increase in the intensity of the execution by 80% since early November this year. This obviously acts as a reminder for all the organisations to stay vigilant towards the sale season. And eventually tells all the players in the global market that both Black Friday and Cyber Monday will witness a significant growth in cyber crime. STATISTICS THAT SHOW IT’S A BUILD-UP FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON One of the most interesting facts that clearly showcase that the numbers are purely a build up for the holiday season is that the following four weeks from 8 October, has witnessed an increase in the number of fake offers that were in some way or other related to phishing attacks and campaigns. This number has doubled globally, rising to 243 in the beginning of this month, compared to 121 that were at the start of October. This obviously indicates that cyber security consultants around the world are facing difficulty in doing their job properly. This somehow places all the organisations at a jeopardizing state because if the professionals are not being able to provide them with the services that they hold expertise of, they are clearly leaving all their clients exposed to the network breaches that could ruin the entire existence of some of the most influential organisations around the world. Below are some of the other pointers that clear the misconception about these cyber-attacks being moderate and usual in nature: • If I was to say that in every 826 emails, one of them is a phishing attempt, related to “November shopping days” would it alarm you at any level? If not, the fact that it is far more daunting, if we were to compare it with 1 such attempt in 11000 emails, at the starting of October surely will. • Another haunting fact is that 9th and 10th November alone saw an exponential rise in the number of phishing attacks than the initial 7 days of the month October. WHAT CAN YOU DO DURING THIS HAVOC One of the most logical steps that you can take to protect your organisation is to opt for a health check up for your organisation from the best candidates in the consultancy sector. When it comes to information security consultants in the UK, Assured GRC always stands tall as the best candidate out there because we offer free health check up not only during the holiday season, but the entire year as well. You can visit our website and check our detailed and versatile health check-up service that covers all the major aspects including general data protection regulation, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 19770, Cyber Security, and risk management. It is our expertise in all these major aspects that makes us one of the best consultancy organisations with the top-notch ISO consultants, operating within the English jurisdiction. Call us today at +44 (0)203 4759 932 and allow us to provide you with the expert consulting services that you have been looking for.