What do email communications and hacked Ferraris have in common?

Every second, several new websites are created worldwide, and every twenty seconds, a phishing page goes online that wants to get hold of your data – if you allow it to. There are currently two billion websites in existence, of which just 200 million are active, though.

The other ones are used by fraudsters to generate more than a million phishing attacks per year, 27% of which are targeted exclusively at the financial sector. The thing that banks have in common with Uber and the automotive industry – which is increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals – are the methods of attack.

For a long time, hackers haven’t just been launching attacks by email, they have also been doing so with the help of social engineering – and focusing on six factors:

• Diversion
• Social standards
• Group dynamics
• Deception
• Need and greed
• Stress

This illustrates the urgency of ensuring that you are protected against phishing attacks. On the one hand, with email security tools such as ours, but also with the protection of all the other channels of communication – not least through a noticeable increase in employee awareness.

The careful handling of the publication and issuing of personal data marks a start in these efforts. After all, the analysis and use of user characteristics, which cyber criminals collect through a variety of communication platforms, is the primary basis for orchestrating targeted attacks.

This was the case with the hacking group Ransomexx when they attacked the famous car manufacturers, Ferrari. They succeeded in getting their hands on 7 GB of internal documents, data sheets and repair manuals, and published the sensitive data on the dark web. According to the Italian media, neither the authorities nor Ferrari have found any trace or those responsible so far.

Not an individual case: A 19-year-old youth recently succeeded in hacking into 25 Teslas remotely and controlling them to make them do whatever he wanted. Another example is the complete shutdown of all the Toyota plants, caused by attackers hacking into the supply chain.

Cybersecurity Ventures, a US firm often cited in the IT industry, estimates that cyber crime caused worldwide damage last year with a value of six trillion dollars. By 2025, the amount could reach 10.5 trillion dollars.

In this respect, there has been a 200% increase in attacks on automobile manufacturers compared with last year – and the trend is rising. The motives of the criminals include the theft of vehicles and/or data from the vehicle owners, or, quite simply, causing the greatest possible degree of economic damage to the companies.

This is an alarming development which we urgently need to counteract.