Alarming Phishing Trends
Phishing as defined in the Anti-Phishing Working Group website:
Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers’ personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use ’spoofed’ e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers often convince recipients to respond. Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware.
In an article on Brian Kerbs security blog
The number of phishing Web sites skyrocketed in December, as did the number of sites designed to spread password-stealing badware, according to the most recent report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group.
He continues to describe the threat of Trojan horse and nasty keyloggers
December also brought a massive increase in phishing-based Trojan horse programs as well as keyloggers — nasty programs designed to intercept sensitive information the victim enters into banking, e-commerce or Webmail accounts.
