BUSINESS - Phishers Target Record Number of Brands in July - September, 2006

Saturday September16, 2006

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) reported September 11 that the number of brands hijacked by phishers leapt to a record high of 154, up 20 percent from the previous month and more than 12 percent from the previous high.

APWG Chairman Dave Jevans said upon release of the report, "Criminals are spoofing the brands of smaller financial institutions, ISPs and even government agencies in an attempt to steal consumers' identity information and account passwords. Combined with ever increasing technical sophistication, the fact is that nobody is immune from possible attack."

The APWG's July report showed a drop in the number of reported phishing campaigns from 28,571 to 23,670, a substantial decreased but still far above the mean of the previous 12 months.

At the same time, however, the number of new phishing sites reported rose to a record 14,191, more than 18 percent higher than the previous high.

Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research for Websense, Inc. said, "In a year, the number of brands has more than doubled, illustrating that online criminals are simply not settling for the large, popular organizations and financial institutions. The increase in the complexity of attacks goes hand in hand with the massive growth in phishing websites and the targeted, broad selection of brands that has followed."

The full report is available at: http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_july_2006.pdf

About the Anti-Phishing Working Group

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is an industry association focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing, email spoofing and crimeware.

Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law enforcement community and solutions providers.

There are more than 1,500 companies and government agencies participating in the APWG and more than 2,500 members.

The APWG's web site (http://www.antiphishing.org) offers the public and industry information about phishing and email fraud, including identification and promotion of pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection.

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