Phishing attacks in the U.S. cost unknowing victims $3.2 billion in 2007. For the year ending August 2007, 3.6 million adults in the U.S. lost money because of these attacks, which is a significant increase from the 2.3 million adults who lost money during the previous year, according to Gartner.
About 3.3% of those who received phishing e-mails indicated that they consequently lost money, which was a higher rate of success for the attackers than the previous two years.
However, one encouraging sign was that 2007 saw less money lost per attack. The average dollar loss per phishing attack dropped from $1,244 in 2006 to $866 in 2007, with a median loss of $200. To add to the good news, approximately 1.6 million U.S. adults were able to recoup 64% of their losses in 2007, which is an improvement from the 1.5 million adults who were able to recapture 54% of their losses in 2006.
“Phishing attacks are becoming more surreptitious and are often designed to drop malware that steals user credentials and sensitive information from consumer desktops,” said vice president and analyst at Gartner, Avivah Litan.
Source:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/12/17/
phishing-attacks-increased-in-2007
Jason Hahn
e: jhahn221@gmail.com
|
Digg 
