14 DAY TRIAL // A report released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) shows the way these malicious operations affect internauts worldwide.
The figures reveal that while in average phishing attacks dropped, China represents a significant exception since in the eastern country, the phenomenon recorded a significant increase. It turns out that 70% of malicious domain name registrations made in the world were set up for phishing operations that targeted Chinese institutions.
An interesting find is that the number of domains used in such attacks also dropped when it comes to names that include famous brands, instead subdomain registration services became widely utilized.
Other numbers show that in the first half of 2011, 112,472 unique phishing attacks were recorded worldwide, about three times more than the same period last year. The peak of these malicious operations was in the second half of 2009 when more that 126,000 attacks were launched.
More than half of phishing expeditions relied on unique domain names, the phenomenon being held responsible for a part of the increase in domain registrations.
The figures related to targets are also interesting, since 520 institution names were involved in the schemes that targeted unsuspecting internauts in the past period. Lotteries, ISPs, tax bureaus, postal services, banks and many more were included.
A separate chapter is dedicated to China, charts showing that tk, info and cc domains were most utilized in the first six months of this year.
“The Chinese phishers are using domains and subdomains outside of China. In order to thwart these phishers, institutions in China need to share more data with the parties who can take down those domains and their hosting,” reveals the report.
“As we’ve seen in years past, phishers will gravitate towards certain services they can abuse in bulk, and those that offer low-cost or free resources.”