The APWG says uptimes are a critical measure of how damaging phishing attacks are and the longer a phishing attack remains active, the more harm it causes consumers. The decrease signals collective progress is being made by the parties that fight phishing, and may be due to improved polices at Internet service providers, brand holders, domain name registrars, and private Internet security providers.

The "Global Phishing Survey: Trends and Domain Name Use in 1H2009" found that phishing website longevity dropped to an average of 39 hours in the first half of 2009, down from an average of 52 hours in the second half of 2008.

"We’re pleased to see that phishing site lifetimes are being positively affected," said Rod Rasmussen, co-author of the study and CTO of Internet Identity.

"In particular, the survey demonstrates how anti-abuse programs at domain registries can have an immediate impact on the problem."

The survey also found that a single criminal syndicate called "Avalanche" was responsible for nearly one quarter of all phishing attacks in the first half of 2009. Indications are that the group is continuing to claim a larger proportion of all detected phishing attacks.

"The results show that on the Internet, action and involvement by responsible parties can really help Internet users," said Greg Aaron, co-author and Director of Domain Security at Afilias.

"When everyone takes responsibility and does their part to make it a safer place, good things happen. We think that is what we are seeing in the results of this study, and we’d all like to see more."

"The initial productivity concerns that many organizations harbored when Facebook first shot to popularity are giving way to the realization that there are more deliberate and malicious risks associated with social networking," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"As cybercriminals choose to exploit these sites for nefarious purposes, both innocent users and companies are finding themselves in the firing line. But until users wise up to the dangers, and firms begin to take precautionary measures to combat these threats, then the situation will intensify."

The survey found that although one – third of organizations still consider productivity issues to be the major reason for controlling employee’s access to social networking sites. The threat from both malware and data leakage is becoming more apparent with one in five citing these as their top concerns.

Popular social networks including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIN and Twitter have all received spam and malware attacks during 2009, all aimed at stealing information or compromising PCs.

One method used by hackers is to compromise accounts by stealing usernames and passwords in order to send spam or malicious links to the victim’s online friends.  Sophos found that one third of respondents have been spammed on social networking sties, while 21 percent have been the victim of targeted phishing or malware attacks.

Sophos says that users will continue to share information inappropriately online. However it does not recommended banning social networking in the workplace.

"The danger is that by completely denying staff access to their favorite social networking site, organizations will drive their employees to find a way round the ban – and this could potentially open up even greater holes in corporate defenses," explained Cluley. "

Let’s not also forget that social networking sites can have beneficial business purposes for some firms too, giving them the chance to network with existing customers and potential prospects."

The fourth quarter 2008 Internet Threats Trend Report, out today, is based on the automated analysis of billions of email messages and Web sites in real-time at Commtouch’s Global Detection Centers.

The report found streaming media and downloads are among the top 10 Web site categories infected with malware and /or manipulated by phishing. These are two of the most popular categories within user generated content sites.

McColo, one of the largest host of cyber-criminal gangs, was shut down in November 2008, causing spam levels to fall to one -third their usual level for a number of weeks. Spam levels averaged 72 percent of all email traffic during the quarter, dipping briefly to 59 percent following the McColo closing in November.

Amir Lev
Commtouch

An average of 301,000 zombies were newly activated each day for malicious activity. Brazil led in zombie computer activity, producing 14.6 percent of zombies by the end of the quarter.

"With user generated content on blogs, file sharing platforms and social networks having experienced huge growth over the last few years, spammers and malicious script writers are finding new ways to engage users," said Amir Lev, chief technology officer of Commtouch.

"An increasing number of blended threats have emerged as new opportunities to infect users’ machines have arisen. These kinds of sites have become targets for new, more elaborative schemes, and users, vendors and service providers must beware and employ protection measures
 

The RSA FraudAction Research Lab discovered the scam and says the result of the attack is the infection of computers with a Trojan.

The RSA blog offers more details. "The fake webpage designed and hosted by the online criminals, is embedded as a link within the spam attack email. This fake webpage includes another link to what appears to be a legitimate video but is actually a form of crimeware. When visitors click on the video, they get an error message asking them to install Adobe Flash Player 10 in order to play the video, and a link is provided."

RSA says that a Trojan is launched when the link to the phony software is accessed called a Trojan "SSL stealer" that grabs financial and personal information of the infected user found on their computer.

Gary Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) recommends that users do not open any emails received from an unknown source and to visit cnn.com and click on news stories from the official site.

The FTC says it has received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to the operation known as HerbalKing. It estimates that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages.

At the request of the FTC, a U.S. district court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the defendants from spamming and making false product claims, and has frozen the defendant’s assets. Authorities in New Zealand also have taken legal action, working along with the FTC.

One product called "VPXL" was promoted as an herbal male-enhancement pill. It was advertised as "100% herbal and safe." The FTC had the pills tested by the FDA and found they were not 100% herbal or safe. The pills contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra that can lead to an unsafe drop in blood pressure in people taking drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease.

According to papers filed with the court, the defendants recruited spammers around the globe to send billions of spam messages directing people to Web sites operated by an affiliate program called "Affking." By using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, not offering an opt-out link, and failing to provide a physical postal address, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM Act.

Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world’s spam came from a network of compromised computers. The spam network included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.

The primary defendants are Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, and Jody Smith of Texas. The FTC’s complaint charges that both Atkinson and Smith are liable for the spamming. It holds Atkinson responsible for all product claims, and Smith liable for claims made for the pharmaceutical products.

The FTC says it has received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to the operation known as HerbalKing. It estimates that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages.

At the request of the FTC, a U.S. district court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the defendants from spamming and making false product claims, and has frozen the defendant’s assets. Authorities in New Zealand also have taken legal action, working along with the FTC.

One product called "VPXL" was promoted as an herbal male-enhancement pill. It was advertised as "100% herbal and safe." The FTC had the pills tested by the FDA and found they were not 100% herbal or safe. The pills contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra that can lead to an unsafe drop in blood pressure in people taking drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease.

According to papers filed with the court, the defendants recruited spammers around the globe to send billions of spam messages directing people to Web sites operated by an affiliate program called "Affking." By using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, not offering an opt-out link, and failing to provide a physical postal address, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM Act.

Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world’s spam came from a network of compromised computers. The spam network included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.

The primary defendants are Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, and Jody Smith of Texas. The FTC’s complaint charges that both Atkinson and Smith are liable for the spamming. It holds Atkinson responsible for all product claims, and Smith liable for claims made for the pharmaceutical products.

The FTC says it has received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to the operation known as HerbalKing. It estimates that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages.

At the request of the FTC, a U.S. district court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the defendants from spamming and making false product claims, and has frozen the defendant’s assets. Authorities in New Zealand also have taken legal action, working along with the FTC.

One product called "VPXL" was promoted as an herbal male-enhancement pill. It was advertised as "100% herbal and safe." The FTC had the pills tested by the FDA and found they were not 100% herbal or safe. The pills contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra that can lead to an unsafe drop in blood pressure in people taking drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease.

According to papers filed with the court, the defendants recruited spammers around the globe to send billions of spam messages directing people to Web sites operated by an affiliate program called "Affking." By using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, not offering an opt-out link, and failing to provide a physical postal address, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM Act.

Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world’s spam came from a network of compromised computers. The spam network included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.

The primary defendants are Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, and Jody Smith of Texas. The FTC’s complaint charges that both Atkinson and Smith are liable for the spamming. It holds Atkinson responsible for all product claims, and Smith liable for claims made for the pharmaceutical products.

The FTC says it has received more than three million complaints about spam messages connected to the operation known as HerbalKing. It estimates that it may be responsible for sending billions of illegal spam messages.

At the request of the FTC, a U.S. district court has issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the defendants from spamming and making false product claims, and has frozen the defendant’s assets. Authorities in New Zealand also have taken legal action, working along with the FTC.

One product called "VPXL" was promoted as an herbal male-enhancement pill. It was advertised as "100% herbal and safe." The FTC had the pills tested by the FDA and found they were not 100% herbal or safe. The pills contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra that can lead to an unsafe drop in blood pressure in people taking drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease.

According to papers filed with the court, the defendants recruited spammers around the globe to send billions of spam messages directing people to Web sites operated by an affiliate program called "Affking." By using false header information to hide the origin of the messages, not offering an opt-out link, and failing to provide a physical postal address, the defendants violated the CAN-SPAM Act.

Some security researchers believe that at one time, nearly one-third of the world’s spam came from a network of compromised computers. The spam network included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.

The primary defendants are Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, and Jody Smith of Texas. The FTC’s complaint charges that both Atkinson and Smith are liable for the spamming. It holds Atkinson responsible for all product claims, and Smith liable for claims made for the pharmaceutical products.

The poll of 1,400 UK adults revealed that men are more likely to be confident about their online security and only 4 percent are unsure of what protection their computer has. "My gut feeling, because I’m a man, is that it is one of those societal gender things," said Larry Bridwell, global security strategist at AVG, which commissioned the study.

"Men feel that they are more in control of what they do. It’s like map reading. In fact the risk is equal among the sexes." Even so 1-in-5 men say they have experienced fraudulent emails and one -in- three have experienced some type of cybercrime. Those who were affected by cybercrime, just 18 percent changed their Internet usage habits.

Bridwell said that does not mean that men are not concerned about security, but they are not able to do anything about the situation. "It would be comical if it wasn’t sad," he said. "Users are locked in. In my case I fly between 100,000 and 200,000 miles a year, so I have to pay for things online. If I didn’t I’d have a horrible credit rating and no power at home."

One in five men say they would feel stupid if they were a victim of cyber theft. Forty percent of men feel more should be done to make people aware of how to avoid cyber theft.

Women lean towards being more cautious about the level of cyber protection they have. They still continue to shop and do their banking online as much as men do.

Bridwell recommends that consumers do not use an unfamiliar PC or laptop for personal transactions, and to use only established online payment systems. He also says to never open email from people you don’t know and not to open or save attachments unless you know the sender.

"Since instances of cyber theft are about the same for both sexes it shows that women need to familiarize themselves more with Internet security so that they can use the Web with greater confidence," said Bridwell.

"Men on the other hand need to be less macho and think twice about whether they have really done enough to protect themselves – especially when it comes to the amount of personal information they supply when making purchases and financial transactions online."

Ninety-two percent of users thought they were safe, but scans showed that 59 percent were actually vulnerable to a number of online dangers. Ninety-four percent said they would find it helpful to diagnose or check their online security status on a regular basis to make sure their computers were safe.

"Internet security protection is like a smoke alarm," said Bill Heilig, vice president for Verizon broadband services. "As long as it works, it’s great. But with a dead battery, it’s worse than no smoke alarm at all, because it creates a false sense of security.

"That’s the position that most Internet consumers find themselves in today, and what they don’t know is definitely hurting them."

The study also found that 92 percent believed their PC was safe from spyware but a scan found that 58 percent were "at risk" or "potential risk" from spyware infection. When it came to virus protection 92 percent thought their PC was protected as well. A scan revealed that 45 percent were "at risk" or "potential risk" from virus infection.