In early February, the Anti-Phishing Working Group published the report for December 2006. The report summarizes the following:
* The number of recorded crimeware applications saw a major increase of 110 variants in December reaching 340,the greatest number recorded by the APWG – and the largest single-month increase ever recorded by the group.
* The number of phishing spoof sites dropped considerably to 28,531 in December 2006. This is significantly lower than November (37,439), but it is perhaps due to phishers taking their usual holiday vacation.
* APWG saw a total of 146 brands being hijacked in December, a rise of 26 brands and the fourth highest recorded by the APWG.
* This month saw a substantial decrease in time-live for phishing sites to just 4 days, down from 4.5 days in November and down from 5.3 days in December 2005.
The use of phishing continues to grow as a primary means of obtaining identity authentication information and then fraudulently using it.
Guy
www.authenticationworld.com
guy.huntington@authenticationworld.com
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