August 10, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — MessageLabs (messagelabs.com), a provider of managed email security services, said on Tuesday that the impact of phishing attacks is comparable and in some cases, has exceeded that of some viruses.
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Phishing attacks involve the mass distribution of “spoofed” or forged email messages with return addresses, links, and branding which appear to come from legitimate financial institutions but are designed to lead recipients towards fraudulent Web sites that attempt to trick them into divulging personal data such as account usernames, passwords, credit card numbers and social security numbers.
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“Phishing has literally burst on to the scene, a year ago it was practically unheard of, now we’re intercepting around 250,000 phishing-related emails or more every month,” says Paul Wood, chief information security analyst at MessageLabs. “While the number of phishing emails has remained relatively consistent over the past few months, there is already evidence to suggest that phishing will follow a similar pattern to viruses ? with periods of steady activity punctuated by significant outbreaks. Whether we’ll see anything on the scale of the SoBig.F and MyDoom.A virus outbreaks remains to be seen.”
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Wood said that phishing attacks, like viruses, are designed to take advantage of the “window of vulnerability” when traditional security vendors are unable to offer protection. As a result, phishing attacks are designed to go out as quickly as possible, sending out thousands of the spoofed email messages within hours of being unleased.
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Netcraft (netcraft.com) reported on the rise of phishing attacks earlier this year.
