Interisle Reports 17% Rise in Cybercrime, Fueled by 56% Increase in Phishing Attacks

A new study released by Interisle Consulting Group analyzed more than 30 million malware, phishing, and spam attacks, revealing a 17% annual growth in attacks overall including a 56% increase in phishing attacks. The study reveals that criminals continue to easily and cheaply acquire the resources for attacks.

Phishing attacks increased 56% over the last year. Over the last four years, the number of phishing attacks (and the number of domains used for phishing) has increased by about 500%.

Nearly 24 million unique domain names were used in attacks, a 21% increase year over year.

Bulk registration of domains for criminal purposes increased 50%. Overall, a staggering 11 million of the 24 million cybercrime-associated domains were bulk-registered.

New generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) were again the most exploited of the TLD market segments, accounting for 43% of all cybercrime domains reported, far out of proportion to new gTLD total market share.

Cybercriminals increased their use of free web site hosting and subdomain services as key resources for attacks over the past year. Over 1.1 million subdomain hostnames were found to be used in attacks. This represents an increase of 67% compared to last year.

Cybercrime activity was reported in 34,024 hosting networks (Autonomous System Numbers, ASNs), a year-over-year increase of 15%. The report urges greater oversight and accountability across the cybercrime supply chain.

Recommendations included meaningful verification of domain registrant and subdomain accounts, tighter controls on bulk domain registrations, and adoption of trusted reporter programs.

#cybercrime #phishing #malware #spam #dnsabuse #hosting #bph

Study landing page: https://interisle.net/insights/cybercrimesupplychain2026