SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today published a global report on the Top 50 Brands Used in Phishing Attacks. Nearly 20% of all websites are protected by Cloudflare’s global network and its email security offering stopped 2.3 billion unwanted emails from hitting inboxes in 2022. As a result, Cloudflare�s machine learning and data analysis give it unique insight into the phishing domains most frequently clicked on by Internet users and the ability to proactively protect its Zero Trust customers.
Phishing refers to an attempt to steal sensitive information like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, bank and crypto account information, or other important data in order to utilize or sell the stolen information. Today, phishing is the fastest growing Internet crime, and a threat to both consumers and businesses. By masquerading as a reputable source sometimes with an enticing request, other times with a severe consequence an attacker lures in the victim in order to trick them, similarly to how a fisherman uses bait to catch a fish. Oftentimes, these attempts come in the form of an email, text message, or mistyped website URL that looks like its from a well-known brand, but is actually a malicious party.
Phishing attacks prey on our trust in the brands we love and use everyday, and are becoming more difficult to spot for even the most digitally-savvy person. Our sanity, bank accounts, and passwords shouldn’t be compromised because we glossed over a misspelled ‘from’ field or accidentally clicked on an obscure URL, said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. We’ve extended our Zero Trust services with real-time protection against new phishing sites, so our customers won’t fall victim to attacks leveraging the brands they trust.
Most Impersonated Brand of 2022: AT&T Inc.
The top 50 brands most commonly impersonated by phishing URLs are:
1. | AT&T Inc. | 26. | Coinbase Global, Inc. |
2. | PayPal | 27. | Banco Bradesco S.A. |
3. | Microsoft | 28. | Caixa Econômica Federal |
4. | DHL | 29. | JCB Co., Ltd. |
5. | Facebook (Meta) | 30. | ING Group |
6. | Internal Revenue Service | 31. | HSBC Holdings plc |
7. | Oath Holdings/Verizon | 32. | Netflix Inc |
8. | Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS Co., Ltd. | 33. | Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation |
9. | Adobe | 34. | Nubank |
10. | Amazon | 35. | Bank Millennium SA |
11. | Apple | 36. | National Police Agency Japan |
12. | Wells Fargo & Company | 37. | Allegro |
13. | eBay, Inc. | 38. | InPost |
14. | Swiss Post | 39. | Correos |
15. | Naver | 40. | FedEx |
16. | Instagram (Meta) | 41. | Microsoft |
17. | WhatsApp (Meta) | 42. | United States Postal Service |
18. | Rakuten | 43. | Alphabet |
19. | East Japan Railway Company | 44. | The Bank of America Corporation |
20. | American Express Company | 45. | Deutscher Paketdienst |
21. | KDDI | 46. | Banco Itaú Unibanco S.A. |
22. | Office365 (Microsoft) | 47. | Steam |
23. | Chase Bank | 48. | Swisscom AG |
24. | AEON | 49. | LexisNexis |
25. | Singtel Optus Pty Limited | 50. | Orange S.A. |
Cloudflare found that finance, technology, and telecom brands were the most commonly impersonated industries, notably for the unprecedented access and financial benefit that bank accounts, email and social media, and phone companies can give attackers. Technology and telecom companies are a unique threat because phishing attacks can intercept the emails and text messages that are used to verify a users identity via two-factor authentication. Therefore, these phishing attempts can lead to other accounts being compromised as well.
The top 50 brands we found, along with the most commonly used domain for phishing those brands can be found on Cloudflares blog.
New Anti-Phishing Protections with Cloudflare One
Today, Cloudflare also announced new capabilities to provide customers the most comprehensive and effective phishing protection available. Building on Cloudflare Area1s recent launch of advanced Zero Trust email security tools, customers can now automatically and immediately identify and block confusable domains to better protect their corporate networks. This offering can help protect against phishing attacks similar to the one that threatened Cloudflare and 100 other companies last summer, when attackers created the misleading cloudflare-okta.com domain just 40 minutes before sending it to employees. Using Cloudflare Gateway, customers can create zero trust rules that prevent their employees from resolving or browsing to these confusable or lookalike domains.
Report Methodology
To generate the report, Cloudflare used 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver resolution data to find the domains associated with phishing URLs that were most commonly clicked. All domains that are used for shared services (like hosting sites Google, Amazon, and GoDaddy) that could not be verified as a phishing attempt were removed from the data set.
To learn more, please check out the resources below:
About Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflares suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was awarded by Reuters Events for Global Responsible Business in 2020, named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2021, and ranked among Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in 2022.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as may, will, should, expect, explore, plan, anticipate, could, intend, target, project, contemplate, believe, estimate, predict, potential, or continue, or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflares expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of the Cloudflare One suite of Zero Trust solutions (including Cloudflare Area 1) and Cloudflares other products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflares customers from using the Cloudflare One suite of Zero Trust solutions (including Cloudflare Area 1) and Cloudflares other products and technology, the expected functionality and performance of the Cloudflare One suite of Zero Trust solutions (including Cloudflare Area 1) and Cloudflares other products and technology, the timing of when any new Cloudflare One features (including Cloudflare Area 1) will be generally available to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, Cloudflares technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflares CEO and others. Cloudflares actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflares Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 24, 2023, as well as other filings that we may make from time to time with the SEC.
The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate to events as of the date on which the statements are made. Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in its forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on Cloudflares forward-looking statements.
© 2023 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Cloudflare, Inc. in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts
Cloudflare, Inc.
Daniella Vallurupalli
Vice President, Head of Global Communications
press@cloudflare.com
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