A partnership between GlobalSign and Netcraft attempts to put the trust back in trusted certificates with a new phishing alert service, a move that addresses the rising tide of phishing attacks and open up channel doors for services around SSL once stymied by a spate of Certificate Authority hacks.
Essentially, the new service, known as the GlobalSign Netcraft Phishing Alert service, sends real-time alerts to customers warning them when their Web sites become compromised and is used in phishing attacks.
Here’s the way it works: Internet services firm Netcraft produces a continuously updated phishing feed. If it finds that a Web site running one of GlobalSign’s digital certificates is being used to host phishing, it sends the SSL firm an alert. GlobalSign then notifies the affected customers so they can address the threat. If it’s determined that the site in question was created for specifically for phishing, GlobalSign will revoke its certificates.
“Organizations are under constant threat of phishing and other cyberattacks and need to invest in technologies that keep them a step ahead of the threats. No other Certificate Authority (CA) has provided this level of added and advanced security to its SSL certificate customers,” said Steve Waite, CEO of GlobalSign Americas. “Since introducing the service in August, GlobalSign Netcraft Phishing Alerts have allowed us to identify more than 70 customers whose certificates were being used to support phishing attacks, alert those customers and contribute to a faster termination of the attacks.”
For partners, the new phishing alert service can be incorporated as another security tool in their toolbelt, as well as an easy value-add in more comprehensive monitoring and remediation services.
Meanwhile, it’s safe to say that phishing attack security is still in high demand. An age old weapon, phishing attacks have increasingly been the gateway for cybercriminals to gain entry into government and corporate organizations in order to launch Advanced Persistent Threats and other targeted malware.
Government news site GCN revealed that in 2011 the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team processed 107,655 incident reports involving government agencies, with more than half of the–51.2 percent–sourced to phishing attacks.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a Thomson Reuters Q2 fraud intelligence report indicated that phishing attacks rose 7 percent from the previous quarter , while experiencing an 82 percent upward spike from Q2 of 2011.
And in July alone, Netcraft detected phishing attacks that exploited 505 unique valid SSL certificates from trusted issuers.
However, the service also takes new steps to reestablish credibility of SSL certificates following a string of high-profile hacks against CAs in recent years.
Call it a bit ironic, but lately CAs have received a bad rap when it comes to security. Most notably, Dutch SSL firm DigiNotar fell victim to a major attack last year in which hackers sourced to Iran issued rogue certificates impersonating high profile customers such as Adobe, Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and others. The bogus certificates were then used to launch man-in-the-middle exploits against an untold number of victims.
The joint Netcraft-GlobalSign phishing alert service, positioned as the first of its kind for a digital certificate company, could serve as a strong draw for security-wary customers and provide a much needed boost for sales and services around SSL down the road.