Cloud storage sites will likely overtake financial institutions as the top phishing attacks targets, marking a major evolution in phisher targeting according to PhishLabs' "2017 Phishing Trends & Intelligence Report."

The Charleston, S.C. firm's 2017 PTI Report revealed, "This evolution in the phishing landscape also denotes a changing mindset in how phishers use the information they collect for financial gain (because it's always about the money)."

In the past, when phishers targeted customers of financial institutions, they would usually immediately use the credentials to break into a victim's account and steal their money. While this method still generates consistent high levels (the overall number of attacks targeting financial institutions increased in 2016), the 2016 phishing landscape saw explosive growth in attacks targeting credentials unusable for immediate profit.