SurfControl Global Threat Experts Track Rapid Increase in Phishing Attacks

May 30, 2006; 04:04 AM
Scotts Valley, Calif. - SurfControl (LSE: SRF), the world leader in Internet protection, has released its latest findings on email threats and vulnerability.

Using SurfControl's Adaptive Threat Intelligence (ATI) Service, SurfControl's Global Threat Experts have compiled threat trend data through the first quarter of 2006.

ATI found a rapid increase in phishing attacks in the last several weeks, growing to 4.2% of total spam volume by the end of April 2006. This growth follows quarterly trend data from previous years where phishing attacks continued to increase strongly through June. An exceptionally busy time for financial institutions, this trend raises the possibility that roughly one in nine spam emails will be aimed at compromising financial privacy.

Threat experts also found a significant increase in malicious URLs designed to trick users into installing destructive files. Spam Web links increasingly point to compromised, legitimate web sites hosting malicious programs and Trojans. Also on the rise is spam employing sophisticated drive-by techniques that instantly infect computers without user interaction.

Pharmaceutical products typically generate the greatest profit margin for spammers and continue to attract a broad group of Internet users. ATI Trend data shows that pharmaceutical spam continued to dominate total spam volume during the first quarter of 2006 with 50% of all spam devoted to drugs promoting sexual performance.

Threat experts note an increase in remote foreign domain extensions such as .mu, .cx and .tl that lure users into clicking on spoofed URLs by using unfamiliar domain extensions.

SurfControl's Threat Analysis and Research department is uniquely positioned to provide protection through its Adaptive Threat Intelligence service that spans the globe. Around-the-clock exchange of information on new threats allows SurfControl's Threat Experts to be at the forefront of Internet protection. SurfControl adds any new signatures to all the three products in the SurfControl Enterprise Protection Suite.