Timeline

THE EVOLUTION PHISHING

Phishing is a type of cyber attack where criminals use email, online messages or SMS to trick people into giving up personal data, usually by clicking a malicious link. As technology has advanced, phishing is becoming increasingly convincing, so this type of cybercrime is on the rise.

1990s

CYBERCRIME TAKES ON THE INTERNET

It’s thought that phishing is as old as the internet, but the earliest recorded use of the term came in 1996. Scammers sent an officiallooking email to unsuspecting AOL users, one of the leading internet service providers, requesting account information for a fake, but plausible reason.

2001

STEPPING INTO THE ECOMMERCE MARKET

In the early 2000s, attackers turned their attention to financial systems. The first known phishing attack on eCommerce websites started with the E-Gold website in June 2001.

2003

ECOMMERCE BECOMES PHISHING PLAYGROUND

By 2003, phishers had started registering domain names that were slight variations on legitimate commerce sites, such eBay and PayPal, and sending mass mailings asking customers to visit the sites, enter their passwords and update their credit card information.

EVOLUTION OF PHISHING ATTACKS OF

2010s

A NEW ERA OF CYBER ATTACKS

Around 2010, large organisations began employing more cyber security professionals to counter the increasing risk of cyberthreats. A notable attack in this decade was in 2013, when over 110 million Target customers had their credit card records stolen in a phishing attack.

2020

A SHIFT IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

In early 2020, as the world shifted to online living, phishing emails related to the COVID-19 pandemic started to rapidly increase. Popular themes included stimulus checks, fake contact warnings, fake test results, Netflix scams, fines for coming out of quarantine and many more.

2022

THE EVER-CHANGING SECURITY LANDSCAPE

Current phishing scams have been using the Russian invasion of Ukraine to their advantage, setting up donation scams and using the conflict to collect data and cryptocurrency from victims. Threat actors used email subject lines such as ‘Ukraine Donations’ to target potential phishing victims. According to recent research from IRONSCALES, 81% of organisations around the world have experienced an increase in email phishing attacks since March 2020.