Phishing Attacks Targeting Brands Have Decreased by 20%

RSA Security has made public the results of its Monthly Online Fraud Intelligence Report - August 2006. Stating from the get go that online fraud is an evolving phenomenon, RSA has tapped into its Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) threat repository in order to describe the online fraud environment for August 2006.

Having closed in excess of 18,000 phishing attacks from its deployment, the AFCC has recorded a decrease of 20% in the volume of phishing attacks targeting brands. "According to the AFCC, this drop is due to the fact that certain financial institutions were attacked more heavily during August than in previous months. As a rule - when fraudsters detect a certain vulnerability, they exploit it as much as possible. During August specific targets were detected as cashable by fraudsters and therefore they focused their efforts on those few weakest links," revealed RSA.

The 20% decrease however, is limited to targeted brands as the overall number of phishing attacks exhibited continuous ascendant tendencies. The top position of global banking brands impacted by phishing attacks is occupied by US financial institutions with 73%. The UK and Spain round up the second and third place with 9% and 6% respectively.

"The composition of US brands targeted by phishing remained the same in August, with mainly credit unions and regional banks being targeted. The trend towards targeting smaller banks is very vivid, and likely to continue into 2007. For the first time in several months the portion of phishing attacks hosted in the US is less than 50%. Four other countries comprise almost 40% of the phishing hosting, while the last five countries account for only 15%," also revealed the report.

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