CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jun 30, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) —
The APWG reports in its new Phishing Activity Trends Report that
the number of phishing sites in the first quarter of 2014 leaped 10.7
percent over the previous quarter. The APWG previously reported that
2013 was one of the heaviest years for phishing on record, and Q1 2014
perpetuated that trend posting the second-highest number of phishing
attacks ever recorded in a first quarter.
The APWG detected an average of 41,738 new phishing attacks per month in
the first quarter. January saw a temporary rash of phishing on virtual
servers; these phishing attacks use a technique where a cybercriminal
creates and hosts phishing pages on multiple unique domains all hosted
on a compromised Web server. Attacks against payment services
represented 46.5 percent of attacks in Q1, followed by attacks against
banks and financial institutions at 20 percent.
A total of 557 different brands or institutions were targeted by
phishers in Q1. This was up from the 525 targeted in the fourth quarter
of 2013, and is climbing toward the 681 unique targets that were
attacked in the second half of 2013. “The number and diversity of
phishing targets continued to increase,” said Greg Aaron, APWG Senior
Research Fellow and President of Illumintel Inc. “Almost any enterprise
that takes in personal data via the Web is a potential target.”
Malware also continued to be a prevalent threat to Internet users.
According to Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director and Trends
Report contributing analyst, the percentage of infected computers
around the world in Q1 has increased, reaching 32.77 percent. The
countries leading the list are China (with 52.36% of computers in the
country infected), followed by Turkey (43.59%) and Peru (42.14%).
The full text of the report is available here: http://docs.apwg.org/reports/apwg_trends_report_q1_2014.pdf
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 www.apwg.org
websites offer the public, industry and government agencies practical
information about phishing and electronically mediated fraud as well as
pointers to pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate
protection. The APWG is co-founder and co-manager of the STOP. THINK.
CONNECT. Messaging Convention, the global online safety public awareness
campaign www.stopthinkconnect.org
and founder/curator of the eCrime Researchers Summit, the world’s only
peer-reviewed conference dedicated specifically to electronic crime
studies www.ecrimeresearch.org
.
Among APWG’s corporate sponsors are as follows: Afilias Ltd., Agari,
American Express, AhnLab, ATT(T), Avast!, AVG Technologies, AXUR, BBN
Technologies, Baidu Antivirus, Bangkok Bank, Barracuda Networks,
BillMeLater, Bkav, Booz Allen Hamilton, Blue Coat, BrandMail,
BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, CSC Digital Brand Services, Check
Point Software Technologies, Comcast, CSIRTBANELCO, CyberIQ, Cyber
Defender, Cyveillance (QinetiQ), DigiCert, Domain Tools, Donuts.co, Easy
Solutions, eBay/PayPal (EBAY), eCert, EC Cert, ESET, EST Soft, Facebook,
Fortinet, FraudWatch International, F-Secure, GlobalSign, GoDaddy,
Google, GroupIB, Hauri, Hitachi Systems, Ltd., Huawei Symantec, ICANN,
IEEE Standards Association, IID, IronPort, ING Bank, Intuit,
Internet.bs, IT Matrix, Kindsight, LaCaixa, Lenos Software, MailShell,
Malcovery, MarkMonitor (TRI), McAfee (INTC), Melbourne IT, MessageLevel,
Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mirapoint, NHN, MyPW, nProtect Online
Security, Netcraft, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominet, Nominum, Public
Interest Registry, Panda Software, Phishlabs, Phishme.com, Phorm,
Planty.net, Prevx, Procera, Proofpoint, QinetiQ, Rakuten, Return Path,
RSA Security (EMC), RuleSpace, SAIC (From Science to Solutions),
SalesForce, SecureBrain, S21sec, SIDN, Silverpop, SiteLock, SoftForum,
SoftLayer, SoftSecurity, SOPHOS, Square, SunTrust, SurfControl, Symantec
(SYMC), Tagged, TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), TransCreditBank, Trend
Micro (TMIC), Trustwave, Vasco (VDSI), VeriSign (VRSN), Websense Inc.
(WBSN), Wombat Security Technologies, Yahoo! (YHOO), and zvelo.
SOURCE: APWG
APWG
Peter Cassidy, +1 617-669-1123
pcassidy@apwg.org
http://www.apwg.org
or
PandaLabs
Luis
Corrons
lcorrons@pandasoftware.es
http://www.pandasoftware.es
or
Websense
publicrelations@websense.com
http://www.websense.com
or
Internet
Identity:
Andrew Goss, +1 253-853-5151 ext. 224
pr@internetidentity.com
or
MarkMonitor
Te
Smith, +1 831-818-1267
Te.Smith@markmonitor.com
http://www.markmonitor.org
Copyright Business Wire 2014