The ill intent behind phishing is no secret, but recent developments in the phishing field indicate just how mature the business of stealing your information is getting. According to research Symantec shared with us, there is over a 30 percent dip in the number of new phishing sites on weekends.
"That indicates that phishers are working phishing as their regular job," according to Oliver Friedrichs, of Symantec's Security Response team. So now we're dealing with 9-to-5, punch-the-clock criminal enterprise.
Prevention is challenging to say the least. These criminals know what they are doing, and they limit their exposure. "The average life cycle of a phishing site is four hours," says Friedrichs.
The security guys are on the case, and the latest suites have some built-in protection to let you know when you're hitting a fraudulent site. And releases of both Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox 2 have antiphishing built in.
But a lot of keeping your information (and your money) at home depends on sound judgment and being really careful. For a refresher on smart practice, check out Andrew Brandt's "The 10 Biggest Security Risks You Don't Know About" paying particular attention to the "How It Works: Ultraslick Lures Set Out to Catch the Wary" and "Defenses" sections.
It's a dangerous world, and it's a shame that we have to watch our backs so closely. But until we find a way to put the phishers on a permanent vacation, that seems to be what we're stuck with.
Aren't Symantec's measurements largely based upon submissions of phishing emails? And wouldn't the drop in phishing over the weekend instead reflect lower activity on the part of those submitting reports instead of those creating phishing sites? I'd be interested to know more about their data and if they observe higher levels of phishing on Mondays, which may simply be the backlog of submissions from the weekend.