Thursday 12 May 2011

Social network phishing attacks jump 1200%


Social Network phishing attacks jump 1,200% - image - BDFM Online
Phishing attacks on social networks have surged to a level of "civil war", says Microsoft SA
Published: 2011/05/12 12:17:17 PM
Microsoft has released its latest data on cyber-security which shows that social networks have become hot beds for cyber scams.
Phishing attacks on social networks have increased by 1200% from the beginning to the end of last year, according to Microsoft Malware protection centre manager, Vinny Gullotto.
The newest Security Intelligence Report also shows that attacks on South African users have jumped, while awareness has slumped.
Phishing, using social networking as a "lure", represented 84,5% of all such trickery last December, compared to 8,3% at the beginning of last year, according to the report.
Microsoft analysed data gathered from more than 600- million computer systems worldwide from July through December of last year for the semi-annual study.
Speaking at the ITWeb Security Summit in Johannesburg, MSN Information Security Analyst Dr Khomotso Kganyago said attacks are on the increase.
"Malware and other attacks are using quite advanced marketing techniques to trick people. There is a high level of fraud and most are now taking place through bank emails. It’s a civil war," he told a session on IT Security.
Microsoft noticed a "polarisation" of cyber criminal behaviour and a surge in the use of "marketing-like" deception tactics to steal money from people.
"On the one side, highly sophisticated criminals skilled at creating exploits and informed with intelligence about a target’s environment, pursue high-value targets with large payoffs," the report said.
"On the other side, there are cyber criminals using more accessible attack methods, including social engineering tactics and leveraging exploits created by the more skilled criminals, to take a small amount of money from a large number of people."
Detections of software crafted to infect machines with pop-up advertisements rose 70% from the middle of last year to the end of December.

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