Quote:Microsoft is top of the heap when it comes to hacker impersonations – with Microsoft products and services featuring in nearly a fifth of all global brand phishing attacks in the third quarter of this year.
 
That’s according to Check Point, which found that the computing giant leapt from fifth place in the second quarter (accounting for 7 percent of attacks) to first place for the quarter ended in September, as phishers continue to capitalize on remote workforces created by the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Behind Microsoft (related to 19 percent of all phishing attempts globally) were: shipping company DHL (9 percent); Google (9 percent); PayPal (6 percent); Netflix (6 percent); Facebook (5 percent); Apple (5 percent); WhatsApp (5 percent); Amazon (4 percent); and Instagram (4 percent).
 
“For the first time in 2020, DHL entered the top 10 rankings,” according to the report, issued Monday.
 
The firm’s analysis also found that 44 percent of all phishing attacks were delivered by email, followed by web (43 percent) and mobile (12 percent). The top three phishing brands exploited by email phishing attacks were Microsoft, DHL and Apple; on the web, it was Microsoft, Google and PayPal; and for mobile, WhatsApp, PayPal and Facebook took the top spots.