The number of brand names used in phishing is constantly increasing, experts say. According to a new study released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), 720 brand names were used by hackers in the first half of 2013.
This represents an 18% increase compared to the second half of 2012. As expected, PayPal was the most used name, accounting for 18% of all phishing campaigns targeting the company and its customers. PayPal was followed by the Chinese website Taobao.com, an online store that accounted for 9% of all recorded attacks.
“This increase shows that phishers are looking for new opportunities and new victims,” noted Rod Rasmussen, president and CTO of IID.
The data shows that, on average, multiple brand names were targeted several times a week. Over 53,000 domains were used for phishing. Illumintel President Greg Aaron said: “A large portion of phishing attacks use new domains, hosted in different countries. Therefore, everyone loses except the phishers. International cooperation in the private sector is necessary to combat cybercrime.”
The APWG study also highlights the fact that 27% of hosting companies unintentionally contribute to phishing attacks.
The full Phishing Survey is available on the APWG website, (PDF).
