Financial services experience 125% rise in exposure to mobile phishing

According to Lookout’s Financial Services Threat Report, financial services and insurance organisations experienced a 125% rise in exposure to mobile phishing attacks in 2020 compared to 2019. The cloud security firm also reported that malware and app risk exposure increased by more than 400% on average per quarter last year among the industry’s employees and customers, despite a 50% growth in mobile device management deployment during this period.

The escalation of cyber-attacks is a result of cyber criminals taking advantage of the chaos and uncertainty caused by the pandemic and subsequently stepping up their activities targeting phones, tablets, chromebooks and other devices. Lookout noted that the ramifications of a successful phishing or mobile ransomware attack can be disastrous in this industry due to the highly sensitive nature of data such as proprietary market research, client financials, and investment strategies.

Other findings from the study, taken from telemetry data from almost 200 million mobile devices and 140 million apps, showed that nearly 50% of phishing attacks attempted to steal corporate login credentials. Another area of concern was that close to 20% of mobile banking customers had an app that had been infiltrated by a trojan on their device when trying to sign in to their account.

Lookout also revealed the extent to which delays in downloading the latest software updates for mobiles expose users to significant cyber risks. 21% of iOS and 32% of Android devices were revealed to be exposed to more than 390 iOS and 1060 Android vulnerabilities due to running older versions of their operating systems.

At Vambrace, we perform an immediate review of your app, using a range of static analysis tools and insights to provide an overview of your app’s cybersecurity health.

For more information about phishing and expert advice on all matters of cybersecurity, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with the team.