One in Ten Respond to Phishing Attacks

According to recent research described in the New Scientist, "One in 10 internet users may be lured into handing over sensitive personal information such as a credit card number, by fraudulent 'phishing' emails".

Phishing involves the use of messages made to look like they come from a legitimate source such as a financial institution in an attempt to get consumers to divulge personal data that can then be used for fraudulent ends.

For the purposes of their experiment, 2 researchers at Indiana University were able to create and modify e-mail messages resembling those of the eBay auction site. The log-in feature had been tweaked to point to a fake site if and when recipients clicked on a link. They wanted to test how many people were be be fooled into responding. ¸

Previous studies had anticipated at most a 5% response rate.

Earlier Library Boy posts about phishing include:

• More IT security threats on the horizon (March 9, 2005)
• Phishing Resources (July 5, 2005)
• Legal Systems Can't Stop Cybercrime (July 7, 2005)
• The Fight Against Phishing Sites (October 18, 2005)
• How to Fight Phishing (October 31, 2005)
• New Website on Internet Scams and Fraud (November 23, 2005)
• Data Security - Year in Review 2005 (December 16, 2005)
• Report on Future Trends in Malware, Spyware, Viruses and Other Baddies (January 11, 2006)
• The Secrets of Why Phishing Scams Work (April 27, 2006)
• How People Get Duped by Phishing Attacks (July 3, 2006)
• Online Criminals Increase Phishing Attacks (September 25, 2006)

[Source - beSpacific]