Report: Advanced Phishing Attacks Grew By 356 Percent in 2022

A report recently published by Perception Point, a provider of advanced threat prevention across digital channels, has identified a 356% growth in the amount of advanced phishing attacks attempted by threat actors in 2022. Overall, the total number of attacks increased by 87%, highlighting the growing threat that cyber-attacks now pose to organizations.

Perception Point’s ‘2023 Annual Report: Cybersecurity Trends & Insights‘ examines cyber threats based on intelligence gathered from the company’s Advanced Threat Prevention solutions, which intercept attacks across email, web browsers, and cloud collaboration apps.

Throughout 2022, Perception Point’s Incident Response team analyzed several unique and concerning trends which are detailed in the report. Firstly, malicious actors continue to gain widespread access to new tools and advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) which simplify and automate the process of generating attacks.

Consequently, they are increasingly able to effortlessly launch sophisticated attacks – many of which are characterized by social engineering as well as evasion techniques, such as URL redirection, which make it difficult for the victim to identify them as malicious.

The report also identified how the threat landscape is changing due to the rapid adoption of new cloud collaboration apps, cloud storage, and services for productivity and external collaboration. Threat actors have pivoted their attack toolkits, reaching beyond email and web browsers to these apps and services. While email and the browser remain the leading attack vectors, 2022 saw a 161% surge in attacks on all other channels, such as cloud storage and collaboration apps.

Phishing proved to be the most pervasive threat, accounting for 67.4% of all attacks. 2022 also saw a significant increase in Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, which grew by 83%. BEC attacks, in which cybercriminals impersonate legitimate businesses and leverage social engineering techniques as well as thread hijacking to obtain large sums of money or confidential data, are often difficult for traditional email security solutions to detect.

In addition, these types of attacks, which are text-based, target individual employees, who are the weakest link in an organization’s security chain – even when they are highly trained.

“As the global threat landscape continues to evolve, we are sharing vital data that portrays the meteoric rise in the number of attacks, combined with increasingly sophisticated attack techniques that are designed to breach and damage organizations,” said Yoram Salinger, CEO of Perception Point. “This report clarifies the need for organizations to be vigilant in protecting their people from modern threats across the multiple business and collaboration channels, augmenting or replacing traditional security systems with effective prevention and rapid remediation services when required.”

Some additional findings include:

  • A 363% rise in phone scam attacks over 2022. In these attacks, attackers pose as legitimate companies and leverage social engineering techniques to invoke the user to call various support phone numbers. When the targets call, they are prompted by “helpful support teams” to provide personal information.
  • Microsoft was the brand most impersonated in malicious email, 3.3x more than the next most impersonated brand, LinkedIn.
  • Advanced attacks, which are complex, sophisticated, and can cause the greatest damage to the organization, made up 2% of all threats, but this proportion rose significantly when analyzing particular channels. Advanced attacks constituted 31.9% of the total on file storage tools, and some 56.9% on Amazon S3 buckets.

The full report can be viewed here.

Featured

  • New Report Reveals Top Trends Transforming Access Controller Technology

    Mercury Security, a provider in access control hardware and open platform solutions, has published its Trends in Access Controllers Report, based on a survey of over 450 security professionals across North America and Europe. The findings highlight the controller’s vital role in a physical access control system (PACS), where the device not only enforces access policies but also connects with readers to verify user credentials—ranging from ID badges to biometrics and mobile identities. With 72% of respondents identifying the controller as a critical or important factor in PACS design, the report underscores how the choice of controller platform has become a strategic decision for today’s security leaders. Read Now

  • Overwhelming Majority of CISOs Anticipate Surge in Cyber Attacks Over the Next Three Years

    An overwhelming 98% of chief information security officers (CISOs) expect a surge in cyber attacks over the next three years as organizations face an increasingly complex and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital threat landscape. This is according to new research conducted among 300 CISOs, chief information officers (CIOs), and senior IT professionals by CSC1, the leading provider of enterprise-class domain and domain name system (DNS) security. Read Now

  • ASIS International Introduces New ANSI-Approved Investigations Standard

    • Guard Services
  • Cloud Security Alliance Brings AI-Assisted Auditing to Cloud Computing

    The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today introduced an innovative addition to its suite of Security, Trust, Assurance and Risk (STAR) Registry assessments with the launch of Valid-AI-ted, an AI-powered, automated validation system. The new tool provides an automated quality check of assurance information of STAR Level 1 self-assessments using state-of-the-art LLM technology. Read Now

  • Report: Nearly 1 in 5 Healthcare Leaders Say Cyberattacks Have Impacted Patient Care

    Omega Systems, a provider of managed IT and security services, today released new research that reveals the growing impact of cybersecurity challenges on leading healthcare organizations and patient safety. According to the 2025 Healthcare IT Landscape Report, 19% of healthcare leaders say a cyberattack has already disrupted patient care, and more than half (52%) believe a fatal cyber-related incident is inevitable within the next five years. Read Now

New Products

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems, an industry-leading manufacturer of pedestrian and vehicle secure entrance control access systems, is pleased to announce the release of its groundbreaking V07 software. The V07 software update is designed specifically to address cybersecurity concerns and will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of Automatic Systems applications. With the new V07 software, updates will be delivered by means of an encrypted file.

  • ResponderLink

    ResponderLink

    Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), an Alarm.com company and a global leader in gunshot detection solutions, has introduced ResponderLink, a groundbreaking new 911 notification service for gunshot events. ResponderLink completes the circle from detection to 911 notification to first responder awareness, giving law enforcement enhanced situational intelligence they urgently need to save lives. Integrating SDS’s proven gunshot detection system with Noonlight’s SendPolice platform, ResponderLink is the first solution to automatically deliver real-time gunshot detection data to 911 call centers and first responders. When shots are detected, the 911 dispatching center, also known as the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP, is contacted based on the gunfire location, enabling faster initiation of life-saving emergency protocols.