Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses,
spyware and spam, has revealed that over 75% of all phishing emails
are targeting users of PayPal or eBay.
Experts at SophosLabs™ scanned all
phishing email messages received in the company's global network of
spam traps during 2006, and have revealed that 54.3% were
attempting to steal information from users of PayPal. The second
most common targets, at 20.9%, were users of the eBay online
auction service.
Typically phishing emails point recipients to a bogus website
which looks like the real PayPal or eBay site, but is designed to
steal usernames and passwords. Once hackers have stolen login
details they can use the information to commit crimes such as
identity fraud, leaving victims with a financial burden.
"The reason why the phishers focus so much on PayPal and eBay is
because they are so popular around the world. Although bank
customers do also suffer from phishing attacks, they tend to be
less likely to have the global reach that these net giants have,"
said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "PayPal and
eBay have worked hard to educate and protect their customers from
these kind of attacks, but the best solution is for computer users
to be more savvy about securing their identity in the first place,
and think before they click."
A recent phishing email targeting users of
eBay.
PayPal and eBay, like Sophos, are members of the Anti-Phishing Working
Group (APWG), an organization dedicated to wiping out internet
scams and fraud. The companies have published tutorials on how to
spot phishing emails:
Research issued earlier this year by Sophos revealed that
58% of
people receive at least one phishing email every day. Sophos
recommends that companies protect their computers with a consolidated solution to defend against spam,
spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.