MicroWorld Technologies
has been reporting a lofty rise in magnitude and strategy
of phishing attacks worldwide in the last two months.
Now, an analysis by ‘Anti-Phishing Working Group’
reveals that phishing attacks reached an all time
high in the month of March with more than 18,000 new
unique phishing attempts along with 10,000 phishing
websites being added on the Internet. The total number
attacks will run into millions, as each of these attempts
targeted thousands of computer users.
As reported earlier by MicroWorld,
this sudden escalation is partly due to the Tax
filing season in United States. According to the
APWG report, Financial Services amounted to 90% of
the total phishing attempts, giving a clear indication
on where lies the interest of phishers. ISPs and Retail
chains stood at second and third places respectively.
Of countries hosting phishing sites, US topped the
list with 35%, China with 12% and Korea in the third
place with 9% share.
Phishing is the method of Online Identity theft using
Smart Social Engineering or malwares like Trojans
and Keyloggers, or sometimes combining both these
techniques together.
In the former method, phishers send spoof emails
pretending to come from legitimate banks and business
houses that carry a link to click on. The link opens
up a fake website which looks extremely similar to
the official website of the mocked firm. In here,
you are asked fill in a form with your personal and
financial information, which later gets sent to the
phisher.
In the latter operation, computers are infected with
Trojans, Keyloggers or Rootkits to capture classified
information while the user visits authentic banking
or other financial websites. This stolen data will
be mailed to a remote hacker through IRC channels
or mails. Recently, MicroWorld Technologies had detected
a new breed of URL Redirecting Trojans which can reroute
users to fake, fraudulent websites even when they
type in the correct web address in the browser.
“If you want to counter phishing, you need to
tackle spamming first,” says Govind Rammurthy,
CEO, MicroWorld. “Because majority of phishing
scams spreads via targeted spamming. We at MicroWorld
leverage the most advanced spam checking technology
using RBL/DUL methods and a series of futuristic Content
Filters. To counter phishing specifically, we’ve
got highly sophisticated algorithms to identify such
mails alongside a consistently updated list of phishing
websites.”
With increased user awareness on traditional phishing,
online fraudsters are moving more and more towards
Keyloggers, IRC backdoors, and ‘URL Redirecting
Trojans’ to steal financial data. While they
are getting better at their cunningness and technology,
any online transaction without foolproof security
is an invitation to trouble, at the least.
MicroWorld
MicroWorld (www.mwti.net)
is the developer of the world's first Real-Time AntiVirus
and Content Security software eScan
for desktops and servers. Its communication security
software, MailScan
is the first comprehensive e-mail scanner for your
SMTP/POP3 Mail Server. MicroWorld
Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology
underlying these products, powering them to several
certifications and awards by some of the most prestigious
testing bodies, notable among them being Virus Bulletin,
Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready, and Novell Ready.
Combining their powerful scanner with MWL technology,
MicroWorld solutions provide a Real-Time Proactive
security for your systems. For network security
of enterprises, eConceal Firewall is the latest
powerful offering from MicroWorld.
To learn more, kindly visit http://www.mwti.net.
