John
08-26-2009, 09:44 AM
There is a big drop in the volume of "phishing" emails, in which fraud artists send what looks like a legitimate message from a bank or some other company, according to a report by IBM Corporation.
If the recipients click on a link in a phishing email, they land on a rogue websites that captures their passwords, account numbers or any other information they might enter.
IBM's mid-year security report found that phishing accounted for just 0.1% of all spam in the first six months of this year. In the same period in 2008, phishing made up 0.2% to 0.8% of all spam.
"That is a huge, precipitous decline in the amount of phishing," said Kris Lamb, director of the X-Force research team in IBM's Internet Security Systems division, which prepared the report. "But I wouldn't tell anybody that phishing has died as a threat," he said
Mr Lamb believes phishing might have fallen off because computer users are getting smarter about identifying phony websites. Security software is also getting better at filtering out phishing sites before web surfers ever seen them.
It could also be that criminals are moving on from phishing to another kind of attack, involving malicious software.
IBM said it is seeing more instances of "Trojan horse" programs, which are used to spy on victims.
Dean Turner, director of Symantec's global intelligence network, said Symantec has also noticed less phishing, but warned that it could increase again later in the year.
Phishing scams spike around the holidays, he said.
If the recipients click on a link in a phishing email, they land on a rogue websites that captures their passwords, account numbers or any other information they might enter.
IBM's mid-year security report found that phishing accounted for just 0.1% of all spam in the first six months of this year. In the same period in 2008, phishing made up 0.2% to 0.8% of all spam.
"That is a huge, precipitous decline in the amount of phishing," said Kris Lamb, director of the X-Force research team in IBM's Internet Security Systems division, which prepared the report. "But I wouldn't tell anybody that phishing has died as a threat," he said
Mr Lamb believes phishing might have fallen off because computer users are getting smarter about identifying phony websites. Security software is also getting better at filtering out phishing sites before web surfers ever seen them.
It could also be that criminals are moving on from phishing to another kind of attack, involving malicious software.
IBM said it is seeing more instances of "Trojan horse" programs, which are used to spy on victims.
Dean Turner, director of Symantec's global intelligence network, said Symantec has also noticed less phishing, but warned that it could increase again later in the year.
Phishing scams spike around the holidays, he said.