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Cooperation Summoned From Security Vendors to Fight Phishing

According to security researchers at the eCrime Researchers Summit held in Atlanta, Georgia, the average life span of infected Websites are commonly longer than the stipulated longevity as security vendors lack cooperation and communication among themselves.

And as per the results provided by the security researchers, malicious Websites life spans are extended five days longer when "take-down" organizations remain ignorant of those sites. Also, sometimes the organization becomes aware of a particular site only after elapsing some time from its first detection and this elongates its life span by about two days.

In general, the "take-down" organizations are specialist offshoots of "brand-protection" companies. These companies are hired by banks to eliminate fraudulent phishing sites.

The report stated that during a careful examination of data, it was discovered that the security researchers were getting "feeds" of spoofed Website URLs from various sources, while the "take-down" organizations transmitting the data to those researchers weren't transmitting the same among themselves.

Therefore, the researchers said that it often happens that a particular 'take-down' organization is aware of a phishing site targeting a specific bank, but a different 'take-down' organization doesn't know about its existence. Further, if this second organization is authorized to eliminate phishing sites on behalf of that particular bank, then, as the organization is not aware of the site's existence, it doesn't take any action, allowing the site to remain active.

Similarly, security investigators at the University of Cambridge have also examined data exchange among organizations that banks have hired to shut down phishing sites. They reveal that organizations aware of malicious URLs do not share the news, causing these sites to remain active for longer time periods than the stipulated ones, eventually leading to loss of millions for banks through phishing.

Hence, the results categorically demonstrate that considerable sums of money are risked due to the downfall of URLs. Meanwhile, a prime method used by banks to mitigate the impact of phishing involves removing fraudulent Websites or suspending abusive domain addresses. Researchers also suggested defenders against phishing attacks to begin exchanging their data regarding phishing URLs in a cooperative manner.

Related article: Cooperative Bank Cautioned its Customers about a Trojan

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