New research has found that 321 cyber threats are blocked every second by major cyber safety brands, with social media the new main target for scammers.
Gen, the global leader in consumer cyber safety and parent company of Norton, released its findings which showed social media is the new scammer playground with social engineering and tax making up 86 per cent of all blocked threats.
This new threat report shows a surge in online threats which closed out a record breaking year in 2024 when 2.55 billion cyber threats were blocked between October and December.
That works out at 321 threats per second.
“We’re continuing to see scam-related threats becoming far more dangerous as they hide, sometimes in plain sight, throughout every aspect of our digital life,” said Siggi Stefnisson, Cyber Safety CTO at Gen.
“This quarter we saw them prey on people’s emotions, such as the need to shop on budget during the holidays, the desire to find love during the end of the year, the hope for change during government elections and more.
“And, unfortunately, this is resulting in people continuing to lose money and control over their personal information.
“In 2025 we only expect these risks to increase as the rise of AI-powered systems and devices will mark the next frontier for cybercrime.”
Related attacks continue they reach globally wall phishing attacks rose by 14% in the last quarter of 2024.
On many occasions, scammers were exploiting platforms for creating websites including Wix and copying brands like Apple iCloud with fake invoice scams.
Malvertising also remained one of the main methods of driving scams and malware delivery.
These made up 41 per cent of all blocked attacks for Q4 2024.
Social media platforms also provided a popular venue for scams and cybercrimes at the end of 2024.
Leading the way was Facebook which accounted for a staggering 56 per cent of total identified threats with YouTube trailing at 24 percent followed by X on 10 per cent.
Reddit and Instagram both accounted for 3 per cent of all social media threats.
Cyber criminals have shrewdly adapted they scams for different people and different use cases depending on the platforms.
Here are the main ways Gen found people were being scammed across social media:
– Deceptive online ads (Malvertising) (27 per cent): These deceptive ads spread malicious software onto the device being used or redirected people to malicious websites that can do the same.
– Fake e-shops (23 per cent): People are lured by fraudulent online stores, also exposing personal and financial data.
– Phishing (18 per cent): Scams aimed at stealing sensitive information like credit card numbers or passwords.
