January, the month of Phishing
According to a recently released report by RSA, phishing attacks skyrocketed in the month of January, up over 20 percent. RSA recorded 18,820 phishing attacks in January, which is more than double the number of phishing attacks in January 2009.
Standard phishing attacks increased by 12 percent and fast-flux attacks, when malware or phishing attacks are concealed behind a network of infected computers, increased by 4 percent. The number of attacks against brands also increased by 2 percent, though over 30 organizations experienced their first attack in the month of January.
The report also highlighted the shift towards increased targeting of university students and personnel. “Compromised webmail accounts may give phishers another foothold in students’ personal computers, since spam emails, compared with other unsolicited email content, would gain credibility when coming from peers, especially if sent from a university webmail address,” the report stated.
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