Kaspersky Lab, a Russian-based provider of global IT security with headquarters in the U.S., has released a study called “The evolution of phishing attacks: 2011- 2013,” which lists Russia among the countries from which such attacks are launched most frequently.
According to the data obtained from some 50 million users through the Kaspersky Security Network cloud, phishing attacks targeted 37.3 million users in 2012 and 2013 – up 87% from the previous year.
These attacks were launched most frequently from the US, the UK, Germany, Russia, and India, while their targets were most often located in Russia, the US, India, Vietnam, and the UK.
Over 20% of the phishing attacks, which basically come down to showing users fake copies of the websites they were trying to enter, targeted banks and other financial organizations. However, among the top targets were such well-known services as Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
Cybercrimes have recently attracted attention not only from security companies, but also from the Russian state. At the beginning of 2013, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu initiated the creation of an army “cyber command”, while another similar project is being developed by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the post-Soviet successor of the KGB.
