From pretend password resets to convincing emails impersonating the CEO, phishing assaults have turn into cybercriminals’ go-to weapon, and they’re working. In reality, over 90% of cyberattacks begin with phishing.
Powered by generative AI, attackers craft hyper-personalised, error-free messages at scale. Because of this, companies should not simply coping with unsolicited mail; they face monetary losses, reputational injury, and social engineering assaults that bypass instruments and go straight for individuals. To fight these next-gen threats, firms are turning to superior cloud electronic mail safety options constructed to detect and defuse refined phishing assaults.
This text will break down the commonest phishing assault varieties, backed by real-world examples focusing on a few of the largest manufacturers.
12 largest phishing assaults in historical past: At a look
| Kind of assault | Entity affected | What occurred | Affect |
| Electronic mail phishing | Yahoo (2012–2016) | A number of breaches between 2012 and 2016, compromising names, emails, birthdates, and hashed passwords. | Repute injury, acquisition worth diminished by Verizon, and a $117.5 million authorized settlement in 2019. |
| Spear phishing |
Sony Photos Leisure (2014) | The hack started in retaliation for the discharge of The Interview, a comedy about assassinating North Korea’s chief. | Prompted vital disruption, large knowledge leaks, reputational injury, monetary losses, and govt resignations. Practically half of the 6,800 private computer systems and over half of its 1,555 servers have been worn out or destroyed. |
| Enterprise electronic mail compromise (BEC) | Fb and Google (2013–2015) | Impersonated Quanta Pc Inc., tricking workers into wiring funds through pretend invoices that appeared like professional enterprise transactions. | Fb was defrauded of $99 million, whereas Google misplaced roughly $23 million. |
| Whaling | Levitas Capital (2020) | The co-founder clicked a pretend Zoom hyperlink, permitting attackers to entry methods and provoke fraudulent wire transfers whereas posing as executives. | $800,00 monetary loss, shut down on account of reputational injury. |
| Smishing |
Twilio (2022 & 2024) | Attackers impersonated Twilio’s IT division, sending SMS messages about password expiration containing a hyperlink to pretend login pages mimicking Twilio’s sign-in portal. | Compromised worker credentials allowed unauthorized entry to the interior system and buyer knowledge. |
| Vishing | UK-based power agency (2019) | An AI-generated voice mimicking the agency’s German mum or dad firm CEO was used to trick the UK CEO into transferring $243,000 to a pretend Hungarian provider. | $243,000 misplaced, and vital reputational injury. |
| Pharming | 50 monetary establishments (2011) | Refined pharming marketing campaign contaminated desktops, redirecting customers to pretend web sites. | Contaminated 1000 desktops day by day for practically 3 days; main reputational injury. |
| HTTPS phishing | Change Healthcare (2024) | Attackers used HTTPS on pretend websites to seem professional, aiding credential theft. | 190M PHI data compromised, $22 million ransom paid through bitcoin. |
| Clone phishing |
Ubiquiti Networks Inc. (2015) | Attackers crafted emails that mimicked professional inside messages from executives, directing finance employees to hold out wire transfers. The emails appeared genuine, seemingly utilizing a spoofed or lookalike area. | $46.7 million was stolen. Ubiquiti recovered $8.1 million, with one other $6.8 million legally frozen. Over $31.8 million remained unrecovered. Public disclosure broken status and belief. |
| Social media phishing |
Meta (Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger (2021) | Attackers arrange 39,000 + pretend web sites that cloned Meta’s login pages and tricked customers into getting into credentials. | Account takeovers, identification theft dangers, and broad social media privateness and safety compromises. |
| QR code phishing | Common public within the UK (2024) | Fraudulent QR codes have been positioned in public locations (parking meters, menus), redirecting customers to malicious websites or apps. | Victims suffered monetary losses, together with unauthorized subscriptions and potential identification theft. |
| Malvertising | Lowe’s workers | Faux web sites mimicking Lowe’s worker portal, delivered by means of malicious Google advertisements, to steal worker credentials and gross sales knowledge. | Worker credentials compromised, knowledge seemingly offered to cybercriminals, breach disguised as a glitch. |
The commonest phishing assaults: Actual examples and stunning stats
There are several types of phishing assaults, and figuring out these can assist you keep away from falling for them.
1. Electronic mail phishing
Topping the record, an estimated 3.4 billion phishing emails are despatched day by day throughout the globe. Cybercriminals use electronic mail phishing to impersonate professional firms or faux to be somebody acquainted, tricking victims into offering their login particulars.
Yahoo knowledge breaches: Resulting in a $117.5 million settlement
Between 2012 and 2016, Yahoo skilled large knowledge breaches that compromised over 3 billion person accounts, making it some of the vital breaches in historical past. Attackers stole delicate person info, together with names, electronic mail addresses, telephone numbers, birthdates, and passwords.
The breaches went undisclosed for years, permitting cyber criminals to use the information extensively. In 2017, Yahoo publicly confirmed the extent of the violations, which severely broken its status and led to a major discount within the firm’s acquisition worth by Verizon. The authorized fallout culminated in a $117.5 million settlement in 2019 to compensate affected customers.
Associated: Including layers like DomainKeys Recognized Mail (DKIM) can considerably block phishing on the supply.
2. Spear phishing
Spear phishing is a focused electronic mail despatched to particular individuals to trick them into sharing non-public info. Out of fifty billion analyzed throughout 3.5 million mailboxes, Barracuda researchers uncovered solely 0.1% as spear-phishing emails. Regardless of being uncommon, spear-phishing assaults trigger vital hurt once they succeed.
The Sony Photos Leisure hack: 47,000 SSNs leaked
In 2014, Sony Photos was hit by a large cyberattack. Hackers known as themselves the Guardians of Peace and broke into Sony’s pc methods. The hackers infiltrated Sony’s methods utilizing a spear phishing marketing campaign, stealing terabytes of delicate knowledge, together with 47,000 Social Safety Numbers, govt emails, and confidential worker data. The hacker’s essential aim was to cease Sony from releasing a comedy film known as “The Interview”, which made mild of North Korea’s chief.
The breach crippled Sony’s operations: practically half of 6,800 private computer systems and over half of its 1,555 servers have been worn out or destroyed, and the corporate confronted appreciable embarrassment and belief points. Sony needed to delay the film’s launch, which value them tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in monetary losses. In addition they spent lots fixing their safety and coping with lawsuits from workers whose private knowledge was leaked. The hack confirmed how susceptible massive firms will be to cyberattacks.
3. Enterprise electronic mail compromise (BEC)
BEC is a rip-off during which dangerous actors hack or pretend an organization electronic mail account, normally of a boss or trusted worker, to trick others into sending cash or delicate info. This type of fraud brought about $2.8 billion in reported losses within the U.S. alone in 2024.
The Fb and Google bill rip-off: Over $100 million loss
Between 2013 and 2015, a Lithuanian named Evaldas Rimasauskas ran a complicated, large-scale rip-off that tricked Fb and Google out of over $100 million. He arrange a pretend firm in Latvia that mimicked Quanta Pc, a professional {hardware} vendor with which each firms did enterprise. The attacker despatched pretend invoices and emails and satisfied Fb’s and Google’s workers to pay for items and companies that the attackers by no means delivered.
The rip-off exploited belief in vendor relationships and the corporate’s fee processes. Google misplaced about $23 million, and Fb misplaced round $98 million. Rimasauskas was extradited to the U.S., the place he pleaded responsible to wire fraud in 2019 and agreed to forfeit $49.7 million. He faces as much as 30 years in jail.
4. Whaling
Whaling is a phishing assault aimed toward high-profile targets like CEOs or high executives. It’s also a sort of BEC assault focusing on high-level executives corresponding to CEOs, CFOs, or administrators. These assaults rely closely on superior social engineering methods, utilizing extremely customized and convincing emails to trick leaders into authorizing massive funds or sharing delicate info. Whereas BEC can goal any worker inside an organization, whaling particularly focuses on high executives, rising the stakes and potential injury.
In 2021, one in each 3,226 emails acquired by an govt was a whaling assault, and 59% of organizations reported that at the least one govt had been focused.
The Levitas Capital collapse: Shut down on account of monetary and reputational injury
In 2020, Australian hedge fund Levitas Capital was hit by a whaling assault that led to its closure. The assault began when a co-founder clicked a pretend Zoom hyperlink, which put in malware and gave attackers entry to the agency’s electronic mail system. Then, they posed as executives and approved fraudulent transactions, inflicting a lack of about $800,000.
The monetary injury, together with the lack of their largest shopper, pressured the agency to close down on account of reputational injury.
5. SMS phishing
Smishing, or SMS phishing, is a sort of phishing performed by means of textual content messages to steal info or cash. A zLabs Mishing Report reveals that India is essentially the most susceptible to smishing, with 37% of its inhabitants in danger, adopted by the U.S. at 16% and Brazil at 9%.
Twilio breach: 33 million telephone numbers stolen
In August 2022, Twilio, a significant cloud communications firm, was hit by a social engineering assault. Hackers tricked some Twilio workers and gained entry to delicate inside methods, permitting the attackers to steal knowledge about Twilio’s clients. Due to this breach, attackers accessed info from at the least 125 Twilio clients, inflicting severe knowledge safety and privateness considerations.
In 2024, Twilio was breached once more by a hacker group known as ShinyHunters, who claimed to have stolen 33 million telephone numbers from Twilio’s system. This later breach was a lot greater in scale. The 2022 assault revealed vulnerabilities in worker safety coaching and inside controls.
6. Vishing
Vishing, or voice phishing, is a rip-off during which attackers use telephone or voice calls to trick individuals into freely giving delicate info. In 2022, phishing was the second most typical trigger of information breaches, costing organizations a mean of $4.91 million in breach bills.
2019 UK-based power firm rip-off: $243,000 stolen through deepfake voicecall
In 2019, a UK-based power firm fell sufferer to a extremely refined cyberattack that used synthetic intelligence to clone a CEO’s voice. Criminals used AI-powered voice-generating software program to impersonate the chief govt of the corporate’s German mum or dad agency, efficiently convincing the UK CEO to urgently switch $243,000 to a fraudulent provider account in Hungary.
The scammers mimicked the German CEO’s accent and tone so precisely that the UK govt believed the decision was actual. The attackers known as thrice, even following up with pretend reassurances and requesting a second fee. Suspicion was raised solely after inconsistencies within the caller’s quantity and the promised reimbursement did not arrive. Consultants warned that conventional safety instruments should not outfitted to detect AI-generated audio, and as AI expertise turns into extra accessible, the danger of such assaults is rising.
7. Pharming
Pharming assaults redirect individuals from an actual web site to a pretend one to steal their info with out their information. They will have an effect on everybody, from particular person customers to massive organizations, by hijacking DNS companies or infecting many units to redirect victims to pretend web sites.
In 2021, the FBI’s Web Crime Grievance Middle (IC3) reported 323,972 incidents beneath the mixed phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming class, making it the top-reported cybercrime kind that 12 months.
International pharming assault: Over 50 banks focused
In 2007, cybercriminals launched a complicated pharming assault that focused clients of greater than 50 main monetary establishments worldwide, together with banks like Barclays, Financial institution of Scotland, PayPal, and American Specific. As a substitute of counting on conventional phishing emails, this assault redirected customers from professional banking web sites to fraudulent replicas with out their information. The attackers deployed malware that contaminated victims’ computer systems, silently redirecting them to pretend banking websites designed to steal login credentials.
The assault affected 1000’s of customers day by day, with infections estimated at round 1000 PCs per day throughout its peak. Though the complete monetary impression was by no means publicly disclosed, this large-scale pharming marketing campaign demonstrated the evolving ways of cybercriminals past traditional phishing. It highlighted the necessity for stronger endpoint safety and DNS safety.
8. HTTPS phishing
Hypertext Switch Protocol Safe (HTTPS) phishing makes use of SSL/TLS certificates to make pretend phishing websites seem professional. The SSL certificates is projected to develop from $234.5 million in 2025 to $518.4 million by 2032, with a robust compound annual development charge of 12% from 2025 to 2032.
Change Healthcare HTTPS assault: 190 million individuals affected
In February 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a significant ransomware assault by the ALPH/Blackcat group, which started with stolen credentials seemingly obtained by means of an HTTPS phishing assault. This breach uncovered the non-public well being info of 190 million individuals, disrupting healthcare billing, insurance coverage claims, and pharmacy companies nationwide for weeks. UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty later confirmed the corporate paid a $22 million ransom in bitcoin to guard private info and mitigate additional injury.
9. Clone phishing
Hackers resend an actual, beforehand delivered electronic mail however change a hyperlink or attachment with a pretend one to trick workers into clicking and freely giving data or downloading malware.
Ubiquiti Networks wire switch rip-off: $46.7 million in misplaced cyber heist
In 2015, networking firm Ubiquiti Networks fell sufferer to a major cyber heist during which attackers stole $46.7 million utilizing a sort of rip-off often known as CEO fraud. The attackers impersonated senior executives and despatched pretend emails to the corporate’s finance division, tricking workers into sending wire transfers to abroad accounts. The San Jose–primarily based firm found the fraud in June 2015 and reported it in a monetary submitting.
The rip-off focused a Ubiquiti subsidiary in Hong Kong, the place funds have been transferred to third-party accounts in different international locations. Ubiquiti recovered $8.1 million shortly and positioned authorized holds on one other $6.8 million, however greater than $31 million remained unrecovered. The corporate stated there was no proof that its inside methods have been hacked or that workers have been concerned, nevertheless it admitted that its monetary controls have been weak on the time. The attackers seemingly used a pretend electronic mail area resembling Ubiquiti’s area identify, a typical trick in CEO fraud.
10. Social media phishing
Billions of individuals scroll by means of platforms like Fb, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn to attach with individuals, sharing every part from getting new canines to getting new job promotions. This makes the scammers’ job simpler when creating convincing scams. Assaults focusing on social media platforms accounted for 22.5% of all cyberattacks in This autumn 2023, down from 30.5% within the earlier quarter, exhibiting a lower on this menace vector.
Fb’s 2021 authorized crackdown: 39,000 pretend logins created
In 2021, Fb (now Meta) took authorized motion in opposition to a large-scale phishing operation that focused thousands and thousands of customers throughout its platforms, together with Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Attackers created over 39,000 pretend login web sites to steal customers’ credentials by impersonating professional social media companies. These phishing websites have been distributed broadly by means of emails, social media messages, and posts, tricking numerous customers into getting into their usernames and passwords.
Meta’s lawsuit aimed to close down the infrastructure supporting this large sprucing marketing campaign and maintain the perpetrators accountable. The operation highlighted the rising sophistication and scale of phishing assaults focusing on social media customers and underscored the significance of coordinated authorized and technical efforts to guard on-line communities.
11. Quishing
Quishing is a QR code-based phishing assault. In 2023, Barracuda discovered that about one in twenty electronic mail inboxes was focused with malicious QR Codes, exhibiting how attackers even use QR scans to trick customers.
The 2024 UK quishing assault story: Reportedly, 1386 individuals affected
In 2024, organized crime teams within the UK launched a widespread quishing assault. They positioned fraudulent QR codes on on a regular basis public indicators like parking meters and restaurant menus. When individuals scanned these pretend QR codes, they have been taken to malicious web sites or apps designed to steal their private and monetary info. In response to the UK’s nationwide fraud reporting middle, Motion Fraud, it acquired 1,386 reviews of individuals being focused in 2024, a dramatic improve from simply 100 circumstances in 2019. This displays how attackers are adapting outdated scams to new expertise.
Many victims ended up with unauthorized subscriptions and even confronted dangers of identification theft. This intelligent rip-off focused most people and brought about vital financial hurt. It highlighted how attackers use new, on a regular basis applied sciences like QR codes to trick individuals unexpectedly.
12. Malvertising
Malvertising is when malware or malicious code is hidden inside on-line advertisements. Within the fall of 2023, cybersecurity companies reported a major 42% month-over-month spike in malvertising incidents throughout the U.S.
Lowe’s malvertising rip-off: Workers focused in a Google advert phishing rip-off
In mid-August 2024, attackers launched a complicated phishing scheme focusing on Lowe’s workers. They created a number of pretend web sites resembling the official “MyLowe’sLife” worker portal, disguised as atypical retail websites. These web sites have been seemingly generated utilizing AI to keep away from elevating suspicion.
The rip-off labored by exploiting person belief in search outcomes. Workers who looked for “myloweslife” noticed a number of pretend advertisements that appeared above or alongside the professional web site. Clicking one in all these led to a phishing web page to steal usernames and passwords, doubtlessly giving attackers entry to delicate employment and payroll knowledge. After capturing the information, the pretend web site redirected customers to the actual Lowe’s portal, making the incident seem like a easy glitch.
Researchers recognized two separate advertiser accounts impersonating the MyLowesLife portal. In a single case, they noticed three malicious advertisements showing back-to-back. Many workers did not notice that attackers had compromised their delicate credentials and have been seemingly promoting them to different cybercriminals.
Phishing clues you’ll want you knew sooner
Validate earlier than you click on. Report suspicious exercise.
- Examine the e-mail tackle to see if it precisely matches the alleged sender. Scammers typically use addresses nearly an identical to professional ones however comprise delicate typos or further characters (instance: Amaz0n as an alternative of Amazon).
- Phishing messages typically strain you with warnings like “your account can be suspended!” or “Fast motion required!” designed to hurry you right into a mistake.
- Official firms don’t ask for delicate knowledge through electronic mail. Watch out for password requests, social safety numbers, bank card particulars, or verification codes are pink flags.
- Be cautious of generic greetings, corresponding to “Pricey Buyer/Pricey Sir/Madam”.
- Be cautious of unknown information, particularly if they’re executable (.exe, .zip, .scr).
- Hover the mouse over the hooked up hyperlinks to verify the URL. If the URL appears suspicious, do not click on.
- Take a second to evaluate the e-mail/SMS earlier than taking any actions.
- Use organizations’ designated strategies to report phishing makes an attempt.
- To remain knowledgeable, often overview info on widespread phishing assaults. Attackers continuously evolve their ways, so common updates on widespread scams enhance your consciousness.
If it smells fishy, simply do not click on
From a standard textual content message to a QR code in a public place, it simply takes one second of distraction to get tricked. Most cybercrime shouldn’t be as high-tech because it sounds. Simply belief that tiny voice in your head saying “uhh.. this feels bizarre” — that intestine really feel may be the very best cybersecurity software you’ve got. The extra knowledgeable an individual is, the more durable they’re to deceive them.
From phishing to ransomware, cyberthreats are rising throughout the board. Take a look at our record of important cybercrime statistics each enterprise ought to know.
