India among the Top 3 Countries Attacked by Phishing

RSA, the security brand of EMC, in its May Fraud Report highlighted that, the US accounted for 42.5% of brands attacked by phishing. The UK was on the second rank with 19% share, followed by India with a share of 8%, as reported by Business Standard on June 09, 2011.

Global phishing attacks remained almost unchanged during April, 2011. Overall, 17,376 attacks were acknowledged by RSA during April 2011, a decline of just 1% compared to March 2011. Still, regardless of the almost similar number of attacks, the number of brands targeted declined by 12%, indicating that almost the same number of attacks attacked a narrower list of brands.

As per the report, during April 2011, 301 brands attacked by phishing scams globally. Regardless of this decline, the number of brands attacked during April 2011 is roughly 30% higher than the last year's average of 236 targeted brands monthly. Additionally, 8 brands experienced their first phishing attack during April 2011.

Germany, UK, U.S. and Canada harbored above 80% of the total phishing attacks during April, 2011. According to the report, the nations that have been constantly harboring major portions of phishing attacks since March 2010 are the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, and South Korea.

The US accounted for 63% and sustained its top position in hosting, followed by the UK with 7% share. The UK was followed by Germany (5.5%), Canada (5.5%), France (5%), Australia (4.5%), and Russia (3%). While few other nations was on the lowest, such as the Netherlands (2.5%), Brazil (2%), and South Korea (2%).

In terms of attack volume the US, the UK, and South Africa remains to be on top. These nations accounted for US (46.5%), UK (32.5%) and South Africa (5%) for 15 successive months. During the last year (May 2010 - April 2011), the U.S. and UK accounted for a collective average share of 65% of the total attacks.

The report revealed that, huge volume of private and financial information and databases of airline and hospitality industry clients are now being saved online and cybercrooks are taking benefit of this to exploit the industry as well as its clients.

The report highlighted that, significantly, RSA has experienced several phishing attacks lately targeting airline clients with the objective of accessing their login credentials to cash in on their reward points.

Related article: India Remains an Easy Target for Hackers in '06

» SPAMfighter News - 6/17/2011