Phishing attacks continue to climb

The number of new, unique phishing attacks rose 180 percent between March and April, according to a report issued Monday by the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

The group tracked 1,125 phishing attacks in April compared to 402 in March. The average number of phishing attacks shot up in April to 37.5, up from 13 in March.

"Overall, unique phishing attacks reported to the APWG have been growing at 110 percent per month, from 28 originally reported in November 2003 to 1,125 reported in April 2004," the group said.

Citibank was the most targeted company in April. It was hit with nearly 16 phishing attacks per day, according to APWG. The financial services sector continued to be the most targeted industry.

Recently, phishers started using a new technique in which they put "floating" windows over the address bar in a web browser to fool recipients into thinking they are on a legitimate site, APWG said.

www.antiphishing.org

 

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