The APWG’s Q4, 2009 Phishing Activity Trends Report reveals that
eCrime syndicates are expanding the base of brands they exploit for
online fraud far beyond major financial institutions and online
merchants, with the number of hijacked brands reaching a record 356 in
October, up nearly 4.4 percent from the previous record of 341 in August
2009.
APWG Secretary General Peter Cassidy said, “No brand is safe from the
threat of spoofing for the purposes of online fraud. Once, only the
largest banks were targeted. Now, every kind of enterprise from banks
and credit unions of all sizes to charities to, in a recent case, a
hardware manufacturer, are now seeing their brands exploited in all
manner of fraud scheme.”
While the number of unique phishing reports submitted to the APWG in Q4
declined nearly 29 percent from the all-time high of 40,621 in August,
dropping to 28,897 reports in December, the statistics obscure a more
troubling trend. Member reports to APWG and research reviews in Q3 and
Q4, however, reveal a substantial increase in phishing focused on
high-value targets such as personnel with treasury authority.
APWG Chairman Dave Jevans said, “Spear-phishing and whale-phishing,
where targeted individuals inside of corporations, or of high net worth,
appears to be increasing.
“Phishers and malware attackers are sending emails to individuals in a
highly targeted fashion, attempting to gain access to corporate online
banking systems, corporate VPN networks, and other online resources.
These attacks do not contribute significantly to the overall number of
unique phishing emails that are sent, as they are not using broad-based
spam. Rather, the attackers customize their email messages to target
individual users,” Jevans said.
The report is available here: http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_Q4_2009.pdf
The APWG Q4, 2009 Trends Report, combining data from APWG members
MarkMonitor, Websense and Panda Security with the APWG’s own statistics,
also reported:
● October’s high of 46,522 unique phishing websites detected by the APWG
was down 18 percent from the August, 2009 record high of 56,362
● The number of unique brand-domain pairs rose to a quarter high of
23,380 in October, still down 4 percent from the all-time high of 24,438
in August, 2009
● There was an increase in rogueware variations of 36 percent in Q4
(252,025), up from Q3 (158,980)
● The total number of infected computers dropped to 10,305,805 in Q4,
representing more than 47.8% percent of the total sample of scanned
computers, the lowest infection rate recorded in 2009
The results of the Q4 report are of grave concern to the global
membership of the APWG and the research centers, treaty organizations,
law enforcement agencies, government agencies and industry associations
with which the APWG corresponds.
Those members, correspondents and researchers from around the world will
be considering the results of this Trends
report and other eCrime research at the fourth annual Counter-eCrime
Operations Summit (CeCOS) in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 11-13. CeCOS IV is
a three-day event that examines the eCrime phenomenon from the point of
view of the responder or manager who has to engage eCrime on a workaday
basis. The conference is sponsored by EasySolutions and MarkMonitor and
co-hosted by CERT.br.
The conference agenda is here:
http://www.antiphishing.org/events/2010_opSummit.html
About the APWG
The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is a
global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition focused on
eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing
problem of phishing, email spoofing, and crimeware. Membership is open
to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law
enforcement community and solutions providers. There are more than 1,800
companies, government agencies and NGOs participating in the APWG and
more than 3,500 members. The APWG's
Web site offers the public and industry information about phishing
and email fraud, including identification and promotion of pragmatic
technical solutions that provide immediate protection.
APWG's corporate sponsors are as follows:
AT&T(T), Able NV, Afilias Ltd., AhnLab, AVG Technologies, Bank of
America, BBN Technologies, Blue Coat, BlueStreak, BrandMail, BDProtect,
Bsecure Technologies, CapitalOne, Check Point Software Technologies,
Clear Search, Cloudmark, CyberDefender, Cyveillance, DigiCert,
DigitalEnvoy, DigitalResolve, Digital River, Easy Solutions, eBay/PayPal
(EBAY), ESET, ESTsoft, Fortinet, FraudWatch International, FrontPorch,
F-Secure, Goodmail Systems, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Goodmail
Systems, GuardID Systems, HomeAway, HitachiJoHo, ING Bank, Iconix,
iMatrix, Internet Identity, Intuit, IOvation, IronPort, IT Matrix,
Kaspersky Labs, Kindsight, la Caixa, Lenos Software, LightSpeed Systems,
MailFrontier, MailShell, MarkMonitor, Marshall8e6, McAfee (MFE),
MasterCard, Melbourne IT, Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mirapoint,
MySpace (NWS), MyPW, MX Logic, NameProtect, National Australia Bank
(ASX: NAB) Netcraft, NetStar, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominum, Panda
Software, Phoenix Technologies Inc. (PTEC), Phishme.com, Phorm, Prevx,
The Planet, Radialpoint, ReturnPath, Royal Bank Scotland, RSA Security
(EMC), RuleSpace, SAIC, S21sec, Salesforce.com, SecureBrain, Secure
Computing (SCUR), SIDN, Sigaba, SoftForum, SOPHOS, SquareTrade,
SurfControl, SunTrust, Symantec (SYMC), TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF),
Trend Micro (TMIC), Tricerion, TriCipher, TrustedID, Tumbleweed
Communications (TMWD), Vasco (VDSI), VeriSign (VRSN), Visa, Wal-Mart
(WMT), Websense Inc. (WBSN) and Yahoo! (YHOO).
APWG
Peter Cassidy, 617-669-1123
Chairman
pcassidy@antiphishing.org
or
MarkMonitor
Te
Smith, 831-818-1267
Te.Smith@markmonitor.com
or
Websense
publicrelations@websense.com
or
Panda
Security
Luis Corrons
lcorrons@pandasoftware.es