Philippine Phishers Thriving due to Latest Toolkits

According to RSA's latest research based on observations it garnered during December 2007, phishing attacks are increasingly being operated and they seem to be developed using toolkits that are of 'do it yourself' model for carrying out the threats.

Similar to the much maligned 'rock phishing' kit that was first introduced in 2005, RSA found that users of the new kit are imbibing a few of the original methods, such as using a lone website registered to many DNS names that would host numerous attacks targeting different bank clients.

RSA further observed how the Philippines was becoming a haven for phishers and their activities. Although the US is responsible for most of the phishing attacks, its overall number dropped to 44% of the total in September 2007.

Researchers at RSA said that online fraud was evolving, with phishing still serving most of the technological and innovative crimes facing online businesses. Further, the existence of new and sophisticated tools at the disposal of fraudsters enables the latter to adapt much faster than before, the researchers said. Info World published this on January 16, 2008.

RSA, which tracked 16% of phishing campaigns to Hong Kong and 12% to China, places them in the second and third positions respectively on its analysis chart. However, the Philippines was host to 8% of the scams in December 2007 and the country appeared in the RSA list for the first time. The company also notes that most of the attacks arising in the region appear to be built with the latest toolkits.

In another recent trend, RSA showed that clients of credit unions too are being frequently attacked, while scams targeting nationalized bank customers have reduced.

While phishing attacks on credit unions comprised of 45% of total attacks that RSA tracked in December 2007 against only 33% in November, attacks on national banks fell significantly from 44% in November 2007 to 26% in December 2007.

Also, with respect to brands as targets of phishing attacks, the US-based financial institutions faced 62% of the assaults, topping the charts in the same way as it did in several past years.

Related article: Philippines Circulates Spam Accounting for 87% of E-mails

» SPAMfighter News - 1/24/2008