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Phishing Levels Touch Record High in January 2010: RSA Security

As per the latest statistics released by security firm 'RSA Security' in its new monthly report 'Online Fraud Report', January 2010 witnessed a record-breaking number of phishing assaults, up 21% over December 2009.

According to the report, phishing attacks in January 2010 saw an all-time high of 18,820, in which is more than twice the figure recorded in January 2009.

Further, as per the report fast-flux attacks in January 2010 contributed 24% of phishing incidents, representing 4% increase from December 2009. Standard phishing assaults witnessed a 12% rise against December 2009.

In addition, the report mentions that the US continues to be the leading host nation for these attacks, as it hosted the largest proportion of attacks for the month and climbing 12% to 57% in January 2010. Moreover, the country topped among the countries suffering the highest number of attacks in January 2010, increasing 2% from the amount seen in December 2009.

The report cautions that hacked webmail accounts might help attackers to gain yet another access to students' PCs, as compared with other uninvited e-mail content, spam mails would appear more authentic when coming from friends, particularly if sent from the webmail address of a University, as per the news published by V3.co.uk on March 6, 2010.

Furthermore, China continued to be the second top hosting nation; however, the share of attacks hosted in China reduced from 17% in December 2009 to merely 9% in January 2010.

Moreover, the report also discloses that UK recorded a decline in the number of phishing attacks, with the level coming down to 5% from 15%. The number of attacks hosted in France, Russia, Australia and Canada depicted a fluctuation of not more than 2%.

The report also informs that 35 new groups were attacked in January 2010 for the very first time, more than thrice the number recorded in December 2009.

Finally, as per the report, the encouraging news amid this all is that the total number of brands attacked surged by only 2% in January 2010 from the preceding month.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/15/2010

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