State and local government agencies across the U.S. experienced a 360% growth in attempted phishing attacks over 12 months beginning May 2023, reports SC Media.
Mounting business email compromise attacks, which increased by 70% during the same period, has fueled the rising prevalence of phishing against government offices, according to an Abnormal Security study.
Moreover, account takeover attacks involving the hijacking of admin accounts to compromise governments' networks have increased by 43% during the study period. Governments' vulnerability to BEC attacks has been brought upon by the public availability of operational, procedural, and staff information in adherence to transparency requirements, said Abnormal Security researcher Callie Baron.
"Cybercriminals can exploit this information to craft more targeted and convincing malicious emails that are more likely to deceive targets into fulfilling fraudulent requests," noted Baron, who also added that agencies' limited cybersecurity resources have also been hindering the discovery of successful account takeovers.
Read the full story at SC Media.
