To buy or not to buy: How cybercriminals capitalize on Black Friday

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The global e‑commerce market is accelerating faster than ever before, driven by expanding online retail, and rising consumer adoption worldwide. According to McKinsey Global Institute, global e‑commerce is projected to grow by 7–9% annually through 2040.

At Kaspersky, we track how this surge in online shopping activity is mirrored by cyber threats. In 2025, we observed attacks which targeted not only e‑commerce platform users but online shoppers in general, including those using digital marketplaces, payment services and apps for everyday purchases. This year, we additionally analyzed how cybercriminals exploited gaming platforms during Black Friday, as the gaming industry has become an integral part of the global sales calendar. Threat actors have been ramping up their efforts during peak sales events like Black Friday, exploiting high demand and reduced user vigilance to steal personal data, funds, or spread malware.

This report continues our annual series of analyses published on Securelist in 2021, 2022, 2023, and  2024, which examine the evolving landscape of shopping‑related cyber threats.

Methodology

To track how the shopping threat landscape continues to evolve, we conduct an annual assessment of the most common malicious techniques, which span financial malware, phishing pages that mimic major retailers, banks, and payment services, as well as spam campaigns that funnel users toward fraudulent sites. In 2025, we also placed a dedicated focus on gaming-related threats, analyzing how cybercriminals leverage players’ interest. The threat data we rely on is sourced from the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), which processes anonymized cybersecurity data shared consensually by Kaspersky users. This report draws on data collected from January through October 2025.

Key findings

• In the first ten months of 2025, Kaspersky identified nearly 6.4 million phishing attacks which targeted users of online stores, payment systems, and banks.
  
• As many as 48.2% of these attacks were directed at online shoppers.
  
• We blocked more than 146,000 Black Friday-themed spam messages in the first two weeks of November.
  
• Kaspersky detected more than 2 million phishing attacks related to online gaming.
  
• Around 1.09 million banking-trojan attacks were recorded during the 2025 Black Friday season.
  
• The number of attempted attacks on gaming platforms surged in 2025, reaching more than 20 million, a significant increase compared to previous years.
  
• More than 18 million attempted malicious attacks were disguised as Discord in 2025, a more than 14-time increase year-over-year, while Steam remained within its usual five-year fluctuation range.
  

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