Education Industry Sees 576% Increase In Phishing Attempts In 2022: Report

A latest report has revealed education industry to have experienced a 576 per cent increase in phishing attempts in 2022. The industry was eighth most targeted sector in 2021, but it surpassed last year’s most-targeted industry, retail/wholesale this year. 

According to the report, phishing perpetrators likely capitalised on the processes for student loan repayment and debt relief applications that were filed last year and exploited remote learning vulnerabilities. 

Meanwhile, finance and insurance saw an increase in phishing targets by a factor of 273 per cent in 2022.

Phishing attempts in the healthcare industry also increased exponentially, from just under 31 million to over 114 million. “Patients who deferred routine medical maintenance during the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic resumed their healthcare treatments in 2022, logging in to their online accounts and potentially interacting with phishing attackers impersonating healthcare organisations,” the report noted.

There was some respite from phishing attacks in 2022, with retail and wholesale experiencing a drop of 67 per cent and services witnessing a decline of 38 per cent. The decline in attacks on retail and wholesale is likely due to a downshift in consumer behavior after heavy online shopping and spending on goods in 2021.

Overall, phishing attacks rose 47.2 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.

The Zscaler research indicates that more than 65 per cent of all phishing attempts occurred in the US—an increase from last year’s 60 per cent. The UK experienced a 269 per cent rise in phishing attacks. 

Several countries saw phishing attempts increase in 2022, including Canada, which saw a staggering 718 per cent increase. Some ThreatLabz experts attribute this spike to the adjacent increase in targets in education. Russia saw a targeting increase of 198 per cent, and Japan 92 per cent. However, Hungary witnessed a significant 90 per cent decline in phishing attacks, and Singapore’s targeting total went down by almost 48 per cent.