CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 28, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) —
The APWG reports in its H2 2011 Phishing Activity Trends Report
released this week that the number of unique phishing reports submitted
to the organization rose substantially from early fall through the end
of the year, while cybercrime gangs were apparently forced to work
harder and smarter to fool increasingly fraud-savvy consumers into
falling for their confidence schemes.
The number of unique phishing reports submitted to the APWG during H2
2011 climbed to a high of 32,979 in December, some 19 percent lower than
the all-time high of 40,621 reports recorded in August 2009.
“As expected, during the second half of 2011, phishing attack campaigns
continued to increase as we approached the holiday season,” said Ihab
Shraim, CISO and VP, AntiFraud Operations and Engineering, MarkMonitor
and Trends Report contributing analyst. “We detected 23 percent
more phishing attacks in the second half of 2011 than we saw in the
first half of 2011.”
However, the techniques used to obscure the true source of those
phishing communications changed markedly over the half, as cybercrime
gangs apparently had to work harder to fool consumers into falling for
their scams.
Carl Leonard, a Trends Report contributing analyst from Websense
Security Labs said, “Over the last half of 2011 there was a visible
trend of phishers and scammers seeking to hide their intentions. Even
fewer phishing websites are using the oh-so-obvious IP host to host
their fake login pages, instead preferring to host on a compromised
domain.
“There has been a 16 percent drop in the number of phishing URLs
containing the spoofed company name in the URL. These combined trends
show how phishers are adapting to users becoming more informed and
knowledgeable about the traits of a typical phish,” Leonard said.
Meanwhile, Trends Report contributors observed a substantial
increase in the distribution of Trojan programs used by cybercrime gangs
to animate their data-stealing schemes on users’ PCs and mobile devices.
Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director and APWG Trends Report
contributing analyst, said the growth of Trojans, in fact, were
substantial during the half, growing to 73 percent of all malware
sampled by the end of 2011, up from 60 percent in 2009 and 56 percent in
2010. Corrons added that all other malware categories have lost ground
with respect to Trojans during H2 2011.
The focus for many cybercrime technology developers in H2 2011 has been
on malware targeting mobile devices, according to Websense’s Leonard.
“A great many of us use our mobile phones to check our bank account
balances using the plethora of applications available. We saw malware
authors seeking to exploit this in 2011, and it could turn out to be an
increasingly attractive attack vector in 2012 as tablets and smartphones
are adopted not just for personal use but for corporate use also,”
Leonard said.
The full text of the report is available here:
Click to access apwg_trends_report_h2_2011.pdf
Other highlights of the report include:
– Trojan malware has continued to proliferate, becoming the dominant
technology of choice for e-criminals.
– During the second half of 2011, phishing attacks increased as the
holiday season approached. There were 23 percent more phishing attacks
than in the first half of 2011.
– Financial Services continued to be the most-targeted industry sector
in the second half of 2011.
– During the six-month period, most phishing-based Trojans were hosted
in the USA.
– From July to December 2011, 14 million new malware samples were
recorded, making a total of 26 million new malware samples in 2011.
– Some 39 percent of the world’s PCs are infected with malware of some
type. Chinese PCs are infected more frequently than anywhere in the
world, while Europe has the lowest infection rate.
About the APWG
The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is the
global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition focused on
unifying the global response to electronic crime. Membership is open to
qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs and Telcos, the
law enforcement community, solutions providers, multi-lateral treaty
organizations, research centers, trade associations and government
agencies. There are more than 2,000 companies, government agencies and
NGOs participating in the APWG worldwide. The APWG’s
and
and founder/curator of the eCrime Researchers Summit, the world’s only
peer-reviewed conference dedicated specifically to electronic crime
studies .
Among APWG’s corporate sponsors are as follows: Afilias Ltd., AhnLab,
ATT(T), Avast!, AVG Technologies, BBN Technologies, Barracuda Networks,
BillMeLater, Bkav, Booz Allen Hamilton, Blue Coat, BrandMail,
BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, Check Point Software Technologies ,
Comcast, CSIRTBANELCO, Cyber Defender, Cyveillance, Domain Tools, Easy
Solutions, eBay/PayPal (EBAY), eCert, EC Cert, ESET, EST Soft, Facebook,
Fortinet, FraudWatch International, F-Secure, GlobalSign, GoDaddy,
Google, GroupIB, Hauri, HitachiJoHo, Huawei Symantec, ICANN, Iconix,
IID, IronPort, ING Bank, Intuit, IT Matrix, Kindsight, LaCaixa, Lenos
Software, MailShell, MarkMonitor, M86Security, McAfee (MFE), Melbourne
IT, MessageLevel, Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mirapoint, MyPW,
nProtect Online Security, Netcraft, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominet,
Nominum, Public Interest Registry, Panda Software, Phishlabs,
Phishme.com, Phorm, Planty.net, Prevx, Proofpoint, Return Path , RSA
Security (EMC), RuleSpace , SAIC (From Science to Solutions),
SalesForce, SecureBrain, S21sec, SIDN, SoftForum, SoftLayer,
SoftSecurity, SunTrust, SurfControl, Symantec (SYMC), Tagged, TDS
Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), TransCreditBank, Trend Micro (TMIC), Vasco
(VDSI), VeriSign (VRSN), Websense Inc. (WBSN), Wombat Security
Technologies, Yahoo! (YHOO), zvelo and ZYNGA.
SOURCE: APWG
APWG
Peter Cassidy, +1 617-669-1123
pcassidy@antiphishing.org
http://www.antiphishing.org or
MarkMonitor
Te Smith of MarkMonitor, +1 831-818-1267
Te.Smith@markmonitor.com
http://www.markmonitor.org or
PandaLabs
Luis Corrons
lcorrons@pandasoftware.es
http://www.pandasoftware.es or
Websense
publicrelations@websense.com
http://www.websense.com
Copyright Business Wire 2012