Phishing attacks: Losses at $520 m in H1 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: Worldwide losses from phishing attacks alone amounted to over $520 million during H1 2011, finds the October Fraud Report of RSA, the security division of EMC.

The month of October which was coined the Cyber Security Awareness Month, by several US-based government bodies and used as a platform to increase security-literacy across the tiers that make up the digital society, also did not help deter phishers, a RSA release said.

According to the report, sometimes viewed as one of the oldest scams in the book, phishing is still a very popular method among cybercriminals. The report also pegs the losses incurred from phishing attacks during the 12-month period of H2 2010 through H1 2011 at nearly $1 billion.

The report also highlights that, though user education efforts are a critical first line of defense in curbing the impact of cyber attacks such as phishing, several other mitigation efforts like Timely Shutdown of Phishing Attacks, Early Detection & Prevention of Phishing Attacks and Information Sharing with Law Enforcement agencies are necessary to bring trust to users who rely on the Internet for many aspects of their personal, social and financial life.

Other highlights in the report are:

·         October marked a major milestone for RSA — reaching the official shut down of over 500,000 phishing attacks around the globe

·         The number of phishing attacks identified by RSA in September increased by 45 percent, setting a new all-time high of 38,970 attacks. This increase was largely attributed to repeated attacks on a handful of large financial institutions which have been heavily targeted throughout the past few months

·         The U.S. and UK continue to remain the top two countries targeted by the highest volume of phishing attacks. In September, they endured 79 per cent of the world’s phishing attacks