Phishing attacks are on the rise. Are you protected?

The 2014 Q1 APWG trends report is available and the numbers are clear: phishing attacks continue to increase in every significant way.

APWG is the Anti-Phishing Workgroup, a coalition of more than 2,000 institutions from across the globe. The purpose of the APWG is to unify the global response to cybercrime across industry, government, and law-enforcement sectors. The APWG issues a quarterly phishing trends report, which includes details on the number of phishing sites, brands targeted by phishing attacks, and so on.

Here's a quick look at the data from the most recent report:

• The number of phishing sites leaped by 10.7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2013.
• The number of brands targeted by phishers was up, from 525 targeted in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 557 in the first quarter of 2014.
• The number of phishing attacks observed in Q1 was 125,215. That is the second-highest number of sites detected in a first quarter, eclipsed only by the 164,032 seen in the first quarter of 2012.
• Payment Services continued to be the most- targeted industry sector.
• 32.7 percent of personal computers around the world were infected with malware, aware, or spyware.

You can get the full 2014 Q1 report here (pdf) and previous reports are available for download here.

Barracuda is a Sponsoring Member of APWG. You can get information on our award-winning content security solutions here:

• Barracuda Spam Firewall
• Barracuda Email Security Service
• Barracuda Web Filter

These products provide award-winning protection from spyware, viruses, and suspicious activity like phishing and social engineering. You can try a 30-day risk-free trial deployment of these products by filling out this form.

Click here to watch the video

Connect with APWG on Twitter @apwg