Phishing becomes more localised

Banks outside US begin to be targeted

Some 73 per cent of banking brands targeted by phishers are based in the US, according to a report by RSA Security released today.

Just nine per cent are based in the UK but the proportion of non-US institutions has increased six per cent since last month.

The amount of non-US banks attacked by phishers is steadily increasing as phishing attacks become more localised and begin to use languages other than English

The overall number of phishing attacks grew in August but the number of targeted brands decreased by 20 per cent, according to the report. This indicates that fraudsters increased the intensity of attacks against a smaller number of global brands such as ebay and paypal.

The composition of US brands targeted by phishing remained the same in
August, with mainly credit unions and regional banks being targeted. The report shows the trend towards targeting smaller banks is very vivid, and likely to continue into 2007.

For the first time in several months the portion of phishing attacks hosted in the US is less than 50 per cent. Four other countries - Germany, Australia, Estonia and Sweden - comprise almost 40 per cent of the phishing hosting. The share hosted by Estonia has increased significantly this month while China, previously a permanent top 10 country, dropped to the 16th place.

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