Phishing Attacks Surge in 2008

The volume of phishing attacks detected by RSA during 2008 grew by 66% over those observed throughout 2007, with UK and US financial institutions bearing the brunt of the assaults.

The first six months of 2008 demonstrated a dramatic increase in the volume of phishing attacks detected by RSA, peaking in April with 15,002 attempts. Attacks initiated by the notorious Rock Phish Gang and those initiated via other fast-flux attacks accounted for over half of the bombardment during this period.

US financial institutions suffered a whopping 68% percent of the total number of attacks, ten times higher than the number of brands targetted within the UK - which ranked a distant second on the list.

Although the US led by a huge margin in terms of the number of attacked brands during 2008, the UK led in terms of total volume of exploits. This is a result of several massive surges of attacks against a small number of the country's financial institutions during 2008.

RSA also noted the expansion of phishing into new territories, such as Latin America and Asia Pacific as a key contributory factor in this year's volume growth.