Phishing and some possibilities of its prevention

Biró, Gabriella and Kiss, Milán (2024) Phishing and some possibilities of its prevention. ECONOMY AND FINANCE, 11 (4). pp. 371-391. ISSN 2415-9379 (print); 2677-1322 (online)

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Abstract

In parallel with the advance of digitalisation, cybercrime has grown into one of the most prominent issues in recent years, especially in the financial sector. Instead of slowing it down, developments in the last few years, including COVID-19, have given a boost to this process. Phishing, one of the most common types of cyberattacks, is worthy of study, also by reason of its prevalence. This paper aims to provide an overview of the phenomenon of phishing and the possibilities of anti-phishing protection, with special regard to the financial sectors’ exposure and the legal context. First, we analyse the most frequent types of phishing, together with their technical and technological background. For the legal context, since the issue is regulated at multiple levels (international, EU and national legislation), we separately discuss the regulation of phishing in private and public law, in particular the directive on payment services in the internal market (PSD2) as well as the payment services act transposing it into Hungarian legislation. The directive imposes a form of strict liability on payment service providers and is also unfavourable for them in terms of the rules of evidence vis-à-vis consumers and microenterprises as clients. The paper also investigates criminal law implications, or more precisely, which offence the respective forms of phishing correspond to under criminal law. Finally, we present relevant developments in law enforcement and IT security. By doing so, we explore the possibilities of payment service providers for preventing phishing attacks on both the provider’s and the client’s side, and if the incident has occurred, what options they have for mitigating consequences.

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