Originally published January 18 2005
Phishing grows in scope; spreading rapidly throughout the Internet
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Phishing - luring victims into revealing personal financial information by sending legitimate-appearing e-mails from financial or business institutions - is growing by leaps and bounds. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reports 8,459 unique new phishing messages circulating through the Internet, an increase of 34% per month since July. My concern is that phishing may well drive legitimate commerce out of e-mail entirely.
Internet crime and security have gotten a lot more complicated in the past year, with phishing and spyware constantly taking on new forms.
Remember scoffing at people who didn't know any better than to click on e-mail attachments from unknown senders, thus exposing their systems to computer viruses?
Boy, has Internet crime and security gotten more complicated in the past year.
In November alone, there were 8,459 new, unique phishing e-mail messages reported to the Anti-Phishing Working Group.
That's nearly four times the number received in August and represents an average monthly growth rate of 34 percent since July.
For example, as eWEEK.com's Matthew Broersma reported in December, researchers have found that most Web browsers handle pop-up windows in a manner that makes them vulnerable to a simple phishing technique that allows fake content to look genuine.
Over the past year, experts also warned of new attacks that not only circumvent DomainKeys but, adding insult to injury, even exploit the fledgling e-mail signing technology for their nefarious ends.
"It proves that people will get to the point where they can't trust e-mail from anywhere," one security expert, who requested anonymity, told Fisher.
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