Text-to-phone phishing attacks dropped 62% in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the previous quarter, according to a report from technology and services provider Internet Identity (IID).
Despite the drop, the number of credit unions being impersonated in text-to-phone cases remained the same. In these attacks, cyber criminals impersonated companies by text message to try and lure victims to call a fake interactive voice response (IVR) system designed to steal personal data like logon information, account credentials and social security numbers, the firm said.
IID said that cyber criminals increasingly posed as relief organisations to launch phishing attacks, claiming to help victims of recent disasters. Phishing was hugely used to carry out Internet Domain Name System hijackings, specifically with China’s search engine Baidu.com.
According to the First Quarter Phishing Trends Report, there was a reduction in the number of phishing attacks carried out by Avalanche, while non-avalanche phishing attacks rose by 14% from the previous quarter. The major share of phishing volume moved to targeting money transfer sites.
Rod Rasmussen, President and CTO at IID, said: "There were some encouraging trends in fighting phishing in the first quarter of this year, including reductions in the some of the worst online attacks. Despite that, problems continue, and we’ve seen a rise in devastating losses for small businesses which threatens to massively erode trust in online business banking.
"In order to be one step ahead of these cyber criminals, organisations must actively detect, diagnose and mitigate such attacks 24/7, because cyber criminals don’t sleep."
