(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Approximately every 20 seconds, a German email recipient falls victim to a phishing attack, based on data collected last month by German email security provider eleven (www.eleven.de).
According to eleven, its eXpurgate managed security service found that the favorite targets of phishers include online payment services, followed by social network user accounts. Users of widely-used payment service PayPal were particularly subjected to massive phishing attacks.
More than 96 percent of phishing emails identified by eleven were aimed at PayPal, misleading recipients into revealing their sensitive data. Subject lines would read, for instance, “Important: *** For the security of your account we require a profile update ***” or “NOTICE: *** For the security of your account we require a profile update ***” An HTML form would be attached to the message in which recipients were asked to enter their personal information, including their PayPal account and credit card information including passwords.
This is the latest report from eleven, which has been closely chronicling recent trends in malware as it has proliferated considerably since the beginning of the year. Presented in June, eleven’s “E-Mail Security Report” reported that spam volumes remain at record levels, accounting for 96.2 percent of all email traffic. Not only is there more spam than ever before, but eleven found that Trojans comprised nearly three-quarters of all malware sent by email.
According to eleven, eXpurgate provides integrated email security, identifying phishing email just as reliably as spam — its recognition rate is more than 99 percent. Further, eXpurgate enables companies to deflect phishing email before it reaches their own email infrastructures, eliminating the threat before it can cause any problems. Private users can also protect themselves from phishing attacks using eleven’s free spam service spamfence (www.spamfence.net). eXpurgate also offers numerous virus protection options and a powerful email firewall.
Earlier this month, in an email interview with the WHIR, Sascha Krieger, eleven’s head of corporate communications, explained the importance of email security, eleven’s technological approach to security, and its pioneering role in the field of cloud computing.
