Black Friday Spawned Surge in Retailer Phishing Kits: Egress

Email security firm Egress found a surge in phishing kits imitating major brands in the lead-up to Black Friday, warning Tuesday that cybercriminals are stepping up their phishing attacks over the holiday shopping season. It reported a 397% increase in typo squatting domains tied to phishing kits. Amazon was the top brand for fraudulent webpages; researchers observed almost 4,000 pages imitating Amazon.com, three times that for eBay and four times as many as for Walmart, Egress said. Cybercriminals often disguise malicious attacks as retailer offers, order confirmations or delivery confirmation emails, it said. In the week before Black Friday, researchers uncovered 200 new phishing kits containing imitation Amazon emails available on dark and clear web forums, with some retailing for $40. One listing offered multiple language support, the ability to obtain credentials for a range of email providers and the option to prompt victims to take and submit pictures of their credit cards. Another offered automated IP address checks to prevent automated security tools from scanning the link, Egress said.