TALKING

Another common cybercrime is the exposure of credentials .

Percentage of domains with and without HTTPS protocol

While it is true that the report details that the number of phishing cases decreased by 32.04 % compared to the previous semester , the reality is that cybercriminals are increasingly using better tactics so that the user can fall more easily for the fraud .

For example , the password ‘ 123456 ’ was used by 665,000 people in the first half of 2021 . According to the Axur report , it reached 37.1 % of all detections , a figure that represents almost double the number of detections of the password in second place . This was ‘ 123456789 ’ with 320,000 detections ( 17.9 % of the total ).

A graph presented by Axur reveals the most sensitive passwords , where we can see the numerical sequences that are the most used . Remarkably , in a brute force attack , such numeric passwords of up to nine digits can be discovered quickly , in less than one minute .

Additionally , Axur warns that phishing figures increase in October and November , close to Cyber Monday or Black Friday . They are significant promotional events and they have a high activity of e-commerce , which makes them prone to a rise in cyberattacks .

Another common cybercrime is the exposure of credentials . A total of 2.32 billion credential breaches were detected in the first quarter of the year and 181.5 million in the second quarter , giving a 729.8 % increase than the total identified by Axur in the first half of 2020 .

Although there was a significant increase in this crime compared to the previous year and not a decrease , the reality is that it was to a greater extent due to massive data leaks , added to the number of weak passwords that accompanied these credentials .

In the report ’ s section on brand misuse , Axur reveals an 18.1 % drop in the total volume of brand incidents in Latin America , which went from 138,199 in the last semester to 116,999 in the first half of 2021 .

However , there was a 6.9 % growth in false profiles on social networks , 14.7 % in fraudulent mobile applications , and 3,356 faulty apps linked to famous brands associated with crimes related to brand misuse .

Figures reveal that although the level of cybercrime has decreased in volume , cybercriminals are increasingly careful and selective of the means they use to commit fraud . Hence , it is crucial for organizations to have optimized digital risk detection and response systems and that netizens are increasingly alert so as not to fall into the hands of cybercriminals . p

38 INTELLIGENTCIO LATAM www . intelligentcio . com