Rise in phising raises concern

The number of phishing emails has soared by 81 per cent during the first half of 2006, from 86,906 in the last six months of 2005 to 157,477, new figures show.

California-based security firm Symantec reports that phishers are using more complex techniques in order to bypass filtering technologies, such as creating multiple randomized messages that are distributed in a broad way.

Phishing attacks use fake emails and bogus websites in an attempt to trick web users to divulge sensitive personal and financial information online that is often used fraudulently.

The latest Internet Security Threat Report claims that phishing fraudsters are increasingly choosing to target home users because they are less likely to have installed security software on their machines, with 86 per cent of all targeted attacks involving domestic users.

The majority of web attacks during the first half of 2006 were driven by financial gain and Symantec has tracked the sectors of brands being targeted by phishing attacks for the first time, finding that the financial services sector was the target of 84 per cent of all phishing sites tracked by the company over the half-year.

Banks and other financial services institutions have significantly enhanced their security processes in order to try and combat the growing threat posed by phishing attacks.

Original article from British Computer Society.