Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have reported significant growth in phishing attacks over the last year.
In a study entitled "The Evolution of Phishing Attacks", Kaspersky said it found 37.3 million out of its 50 million customers running its security products that were at risk of being phished from 2012 to the present, an 87 percent increase over the same period between 2011 and 2012.
Two men have been jailed for their part in a cleverly-targeted phishing scam that managed to steal a total of £1.5 million ($2.3 million) from UK students by impersonating the official loans company.
Timed to coincide with the award of loans last August, the men - Britons Damola Clement Olatunji and Amos Njoroge Mwangi - were found to have separately sent out large numbers of emails asking students to confirm their bank account details via a bogus website.
Researchers from the security firm Trusteer have come across a scam, advertised on underground forums, that represents a perfect combination between the classic check fraud and the malicious operations performed by cybercriminals.
Basically, the seller offers high-quality false bank checks on which any information can be printed. For a mere $5 (3.8 EUR) the fraudster that runs the operation can print any banking credentials the buyer wants.
The 15 companies will be announcing on Monday DMARC.org, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance--a system for verifying that e-mails are coming from legitimate companies and not imposters trying to trick people into clicking a phishing link. Basically, the system offers a common way for companies to authenticate their legitimate communications with customers.
