CircleID

Recent study indicates that US continues to widen its lead as the number one country when it comes to hosting phishing sites. According to the latest Brandjacking Index just released by MarkMonitor, US-hosted phishing sites grew by ten percent from last quarter—up from 36 percent to 46 percent. Canada is now at second position with 4.7 percent of all phishing attacks, followed by the Russian Federation (4.5 percent), France (4 percent), and Denmark (4 percent).

Other findings include:

• More than 7,300 domains exploited the four financial brands in the study, with 16 percent of the domains registered since September 2008
• 24 percent of these cybersquatted domains registered since September 2008 used the focus terms—foreclosure, mortgage, refinance and unemployed—translating to a registration rate of more than one cybersquatted domain per day exploiting the focus terms
• Domains registered since September 2008 were 50 percent more likely to use the focus terms than domains registered earlier
• 52 percent of the domains identified in the study did not encrypt customer data, putting consumers' personal identity information at risk

Related Links:
MarkMonitor Research Shows How Online Scammers Are Using the Financial Crisis to Prey on Consumer Trust in Leading Brands Press Release, Jun.29.2009
Social Networking Phishing Attacks Up More Than 240% Dark Reading, Jun.29.2009

Related topics: Cybercrime, Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Security, Spam