APWG Releases Q3 2009 Phishing Trends Report

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) released its "Q3 2009 phishing Activity Trends Report" during the 3rd week of January 2010, providing data of phishing trends seen during July-September 2009.

The report findings suggest that there was a record 40,621 unique phishing complaints in August 2009 notified to APWG during the third quarter of 2009. This number was 10% higher than the earlier peak during September 2007.

Moreover, there was a record 56,362 unique phishing websites in August 2009 detected by APWG during Q3 2009. The number was almost 1.3% higher than the previous peak of 55,643 during April 2007.

Apart from these findings, APWG also reveals that it found phishing attacks against unique brands increased at a rate of 19%. Thus, it is evident that phishing scammers are constantly spreading to fresh targets comprising new brands, says APWG. The Group also reports that domain names utilized for phishing websites rose 85% during Q3 2009 compared to Q3 2008.

Furthermore, the top nation where the highest number of phishing sites was hosted during Q3 2009 continued to be the United States.

Expressing his views on this interesting observation, Peter Cassidy, Secretary General of APWG, stated that online criminals' gangs were putting in efforts much more smartly and strongly in all dimensions. The new report showed how syndicates were unleashing an unprecedented number of phishing e-mails and websites. These e-mails and websites were aimed at an increasing number of reputed companies to widen the gangs' lucrative business model over a much higher distribution scale, the Secretary General pointed out, as reported by Net Developer's Journal on January 21, 2010.

However, there was a 60% decline in the aggregate of fake security programs during June-July 2009. These programs are designed to infect PCs for leveraging mixed online crimes. Evidently, the decline was because online crime syndicates shifted focus from huge distribution of fake security software for harvesting users' private data to more effective models that utilized ransomware. Apparently, ransomware do not require too much circulation for earning optimal profits, APWG finds in its report.

Related article: APACS Reports Phishing On The Rise

» SPAMfighter News - 01-02-2010

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