Phishing does not fade, with financial brands as most exploited in junk mails

 A study by brand reputation firm MarkMonitor revealed that phishing attacks increased to a record high during the second quarter of 2009 with the number of unique attacks amounting 151,000.

According to the report brands in the financial and payment services sectors are still most exploited subject for fake emails that target unwitting users to lure them into giving away their credentials. Financial brands were the subject of 80% of all phishing attacks in the second quarter of 2009. On the other end attacks targeting the login credentials of social networking websites more than doubled between Q2 2008 and Q2 2009, increasing 168% within the period of one year.

MarkMonitor has analyzed millions of URLs in fraudulent emails and revealed that cyber crooks changed their techniques with 351 attacks per organization, on average in the quarter. 50% of the sites associated with phishing practices were from the United States.