Phishers cast their nets wider

Almost half of all phishing attacks target online bankers outside of the UK and US

Internet criminals are increasingly targeting non-English speaking countries to launch phishing attacks, says research.

Almost 50 per cent of worldwide phishing attacks are now targeting users of internet banking in countries outside of the US and the UK, says the survey from RSA Security.

While the US still remains the single biggest target for phishing attacks – that aim to steal internet users passwords and financial details – Spain, Germany and Italy are also being targeted more.

Criminals are even translating emails into local languages, such as Catalan in Northern Spain, to try and trick internet customers.

RSA Security says that cyber crime gangs may be moving to countries where people have yet to be tricked by phishing, because US and UK banks are implementing stronger security, such as fraud detection and two-factor authentication technologies.

The survey also showed that 20 per cent of phishing attacks on UK internet users came from the United States. Korea and German internet service providers were also used to host spoof websites and send phishing emails to UK online banking customers.

Richard Turner, who heads RSA Security's European operations told Computing that banks need to take a multilayered approach to deal with the problem of phishing.

'They need to prevent the fraud in the first place by using detection systems or reduce the life-span of any pharming and phishing attack. In some cases prevention is better than cure,' said Turner.

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