EU Picks ‘Anti-Phishing Project’ For Funding

The European Commission has granted funding to 'anti-phishing project' jointly between commercial, academic and research groups operating for over three years. The companies undertaking the project are 'Symantec', 'Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft', 'Nortel', 'Katholieke Universiteit KU Leuven' and 'Tiscali'.

The 'AntiPhish Project' aims to develop 'anti-phishing mechanisms' to help protect and secure the world e-mail infrastructure. With this objective, 'AntiPhish' wants to work with the 'Information Society Technologies Sixth Framework Program' (FP6), which is striving to form a 'global dependability and security framework'.

Brian Witten, 'director of government research' in 'Symantec Research Labs' said the AntiPhish collaboration was in advantage to be part of this significant international effort. The research the consortium undertakes will revolutionize the joint capabilities of leading research organizations possessing practical experience of industry participants who have the technical knowledge to fight spam on a global scale. The consortium believes the new technology it developed in a test laboratory shall soon be implemented at Tiscali, one of the largest 'internet service providers' in the world.

Domenico Dato, 'R&D manager' at Tiscali expressed happiness on being part of this joint effort. 'Tiscali Labs' will also include 'anti-phish research' among its other activities. 'Tiscali Labs' is a research and development hub established for implementing and testing innovative products. Dato said their active participation in the project would enable them to provide their customers with 'state-of-the-art' technologies to prevent spam and phishing. This would considerably improve customers' Internet experience.

There is expectation of unique and critical contribution by each of the five partners to the 'AntiPhish project'. The project coordinator of 'Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information System' (IAIS) of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the biggest organization for 'applied research' in Europe.

The 'Anti phishing Working Group' (APWG) estimated over 10,000 active phishing sites in August 2006. The majority of them were hosted in U.S. However, the scenario is changing fast as Security Company Marshal reported that huge volumes of phishing attacks arose from China that now forms 18% of the total. 'Sophos', 'MessageLabs' and 'Syamntec' have recently discussed in its reports about the rise of serious crime related to malware, fraud, spyware and phishing, damaging legitimate online commerce.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 12/11/2006