Overall, phishing attempts are down in the first half of 2009 as reported by IBM’s X-Force Team in the 2009 Mid-Year Trend & Risk Report.
The decrease is fueled by a decline in the number of traditional banks. Researchers speculate that this trend could be fueled by the financial crisis, or perhaps improved security measures when users login to “real” banks online is playing a role. Make no mistake however, hackers aren’t slowing down. They seem instead to be targeting Online Payment institutions instead as reflected in the rise of attacks over the last 18 months.
To further reinforce the movement toward Online Payment institutions, PayPal is mentioned in two of the top five subject lines from this year. (PayPal is included four times if you extend the list to the top ten slots.)
- Attention! Votre compte PayPal a ete limite!, 24%
- Important Information Regarding Your Limited Account, 7%
- PayPal® Account Review Department, 2%
- Account Security Measures, 1%
- Citibank Alert: Additional Security Requirements, 1%
Along with the change in volume, phishing attack origins have shifted dramatically this year. Russia takes the top spot, and they weren’t present on the list last year; Turkey, Ukraine, and India are new as well. Spain and Italy sat in the top slots last year, but Spain has completely disappeared along with Israel, France, and Germany who were smaller yet valid players in ’08.
The top 10 for 2009 include:
- Russia 47% NEW
- Brazil 7%
- India 2% NEW
- Poland 2%
- S. Korea 2%
- US 11%
- Turkey 4% NEW
- Ukraine 2% NEW
- Argentina 2%
- Italy 1%
The net of these changes lay the groundwork to support foundational changes to the cyber community ecosystem are coming. Researchers are concerned that the decline in phishing attempts simply means that hackers are redirecting resources to other methods that obtain the same (or better gains) that phishing once achieved.
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