VeriSign - More than 80% of Australians in Danger of Online Fraud

In a recent research conducted by VeriSign (an Internet security vendor), it has been found that 86% of Web users in Australia face the danger of online fraud as they are incapable of distinguishing a phishing site from a legitimate one, as reported by ITWire on June 30, 2009.

According to the research, in spite of online retailers and banks trying to spread awareness, Australian consumers continue to become convinced of scammers' ruses, with about 23% falling prey to these ruses.

Armando Dacal, Director of Authentication Services, VeriSign Asia-Pacific, said that his organization's survey examined the understanding and applicability of several types of phishing techniques about which Australian end-users should know, as reported by current on June 29, 2009.

Dacal further said that devious tactics like impersonated websites (phishing sites) that attempted to steal end-users' personal information had been exposed as functioning successfully among all age-groups, but in different degrees.

Internet users between the age of 45 and 54 years are those Australians who are in the greatest danger of phishing. In truth, their chances of identifying a scam such as a phishing site are 25% less. Additionally, end-users above 65 years of age have over twofold chances of missing to check the details of a website, while 43% miss to select the right URL addresses. In other words, they have greater possibilities of becoming a victim of phishing than those between 45 and 54 years of age.

However, users from the younger generation continue to be in danger and have a greater inclination towards responding to threat strategies, with as much as 26% not being able to recognize a bogus website. This implies that there is a direct relationship between the young age of a Web surfer and the inclination to fall for a phishing fraud since the younger users overlook security flaws in their surfing excitement as also ignore to think twice about their security.

Besides, the research discovered that Australia like the US and UK is another country, which is the most vulnerable to phishing attacks. Conversely, countries that have the best online defenses are Sweden and Germany.

Related article: Viruses Pose Biggest Threat to Asian Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 7/14/2009