Phishing Attacks Reported in H1 2008 Increased Significantly

Cyveillance, a leading company in the world of Internet intelligence, announced on July 31, 2008 that 367 distinct brands became victims of phishing attacks for the first time during January-June 2008, representing an 80% increase from July-December 2007.

And as pointed out in Cyveillance's upcoming H1 2008 "Online Financial Fraud and Identity Theft Report," the growth in phishing assaults on newly-introduced brands now account for nearly 20% of the total attacks since 2005.

According to the security researchers, as phishing criminals become increasingly sophisticated and attack more numbers of Internet users, security experts who strive to foil these criminals' techniques, also get to sharpen their skills. This becomes a closed circular chase between the criminals who raise their stakes higher and the security experts who find the challenges getting harder every day.

Meanwhile, phishing will inflict Internet users till the time Internet exists and the increase in the number of users doing their shopping/banking online has also increased the amount of data available to the phishing criminals. Subsequently, these phishers create more sophisticated plans every day that separate the users from their money.

Furthermore, according to James Brooks, Director of Product Management for Cyveillance, the perpetrators are increasingly targeting more friendly areas that may be unresponsive to entreaties, for example - China, which is the most rapidly growing refuge for attacks. And with the number of bureaucratic issues in place, it can prove hard to suspend these attacks, as reported by TechNewsWorld on August 1, 2008.

Moreover, Cyveillance also discovered that financial organizations are still the prime target of phishers' attacks, representing almost 95% of the total attacks. During January-June 2008, the company detected phishing attempts in 30 different countries, including many in Latin America and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the security experts of the company said that the report has been prepared by continuous monitoring of information as well as its collection from several sources. These include more than 200 Million DNSs, with many as fictitious, 150 Million distinct Websites, with many as bogus, 80 Million blogs, with some containing spam, several spoofed auction sites, botnets and more.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 8/14/2008