The number of banks targeted rose to 188 last month, the highest since August 2007

A total of 188 global banking brands were targeted by phishing attacks during February – the highest figure for six months.

Online fraudsters targeted 20 financial organisations that had never previously experienced attacks, according to security specialist RSA.

A change of tactics is helping malicious emails to evade spam filters, said RSA. By directing attacks through URLs with tiny variations, phishers are able to make their messages "unfamiliar" to filtering applications.

UK banks were the second-most phished instituitions for the 13th consecutive month, receiving 12 per cent of the attacks. US organisations received the most attacks overall, with 59 per cent of detected activities.