APWG Releases 2008 First Quarter Phishing Activity Trends Report

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APWG Releases 2008 First Quarter Phishing Activity Trends Report

By CircleID Reporter
September 09, 2008, 9:28 pm PDT Views: 5,929 Add Comment

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has released its 2008 first quarter Phishing Activity Trends Report revealing that the Crimeware-Spreading URLs rose rapidly doubling previous high. More specifically, the report say that numbers of crimeware-spreading URLs infecting PCs with password-stealing code rose 93 percent in Q1, 2008 to 6,500 sites, nearly double the previous high of November, 2007—and an increase of 337 percent from the number detected end of Q1, 2007. On the positive side, the number of phishing reports and new phishing websites decreased at the end of Q1 2008 period.

Below is a summary of key findings in the report:

• Numbers of unique phishing reports submitted to APWG declined by 12.5% by the end of the period, after a spike in February, attributable to IRS-related attacks

• Unique phishing websites detected by APWG ended down by 12 percent from January, at 25,630 in March, spiking in February to 36,002, due to IRS-related attacks

• The number of hijacked brands rose from 131 to 141 within the period, well within the average for the year

• Financial Services was the most targeted sector during the quarter, running between 92 and 94 percent

• While the United States remains the top country hosting phishing sites, China dropped to fifth at the end of the period

• The number of unique Keyloggers and malicious code applications detected rose to a record 430 in the period

APWG Phishing Trends Activity Report for Q1 2008 is available here [PDF].

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