As the annual Black Friday approaches, the digital landscape experiences an unprecedented surge in e-commerce and online shopping activity. Major sales aside, e-commerce is still a huge market. In 2022, global e-commerce retail revenue was estimated to reach $5.7 trillion worldwide, marking nearly a 10% increase compared to the previous year. The annual Black Friday rise in online transactions sets the stage for a cyber-battleground, where malicious actors exploit users’ interest in online shopping.
Against this backdrop, our report delves into the intricate web of cyberthreats relating to e-commerce and the Black Friday season. As consumers flock to online platforms in search of exclusive deals, the threatscape also witnesses increased fraudulent and cybercriminal activity, which necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the cybersecurity challenges faced by individuals during this festive shopping spree.
Methodology
In this research, we examine various types of threats, such as financial malware and phishing pages that imitate the world’s largest retail platforms, banks and payment systems. The threat statistics we reference are sourced from the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), a system that processes anonymized cyberthreat data voluntarily shared by Kaspersky users. This data spans the period from January through October 2023. Furthermore, we conducted an analysis of Black Friday–related spam and phishing activity in the weeks leading up to Black Friday.
Key findings
In the first ten months of 2023, Kaspersky identified 30,803,840 phishing attacks that targeted online stores, payment systems, and banks.
E-commerce platforms bore the brunt, used as a lure in 43.5% of the total attacks (13,390,142 attacks).
Phishing pages mimicking popular shopping platforms (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress, and Mercado Libre) totaled 6,232,882 in the ..
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