Phishing risk rises

Banks and brokerage firms continue to have problems with sophisticated phishing schemes targeting their customers. Many brokerage firms have released records on the amounts that they had to pay back to account holders who have been cleared out electronically. The numbers persistently grow at a staggering rate each year.

Recently a large international cybercrime ring was taken down. These crooks used the internet to facilitate the theft and misuse of credit and bank card numbers. Spam that sent account holders to fraudulent websites was the common starting point in clearing out the victims accounts.

Two recent articles discussed the situation. The Information week article provides a list of impacted institutions; if you have credit cards or accounts with these firms then you should be on alert. The SC Magazine article focuses on technical measures such as SPF, and DomainKeys which can be used by the industry to reduce the problem.

International Cybercrime Ring Busted

Hot or Not: Winning against the phishing assault