50 percent Phishing Emails Seek Credential Theft, as Malware Delivery Declines
Health IT Security
Jessica Davis
The number of phishing campaigns delivering malware has drastically decreased in recent years, with just 12 percent of phishing deploying malware. On the other hand, 57 percent of all phishing attacks were designed for credential theft in 2020, according to Cofense.
The 2020 Annual State of Phishing Report details evolving tactics used by threat actors, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the scope of phishing campaigns.
The report is compiled from the analysis of millions of emails related to phishing attacks. Of the 255,000 malicious emails analyzed, researchers found almost 100 unique malware families.
For healthcare, 59 percent of attacks took aim at credential theft, while 15 percent were designed for business email compromise and just 5 percent contained malware payloads.
Further, across all sectors, about 45 percent of credential phish attacks targeted...