div class=separator style=clear:both;text-align:center;a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wgns7r5yd8c/Skl9qBeC_hI/AAAAAAAAH5A/68jf37KDoNI/s1600-h/pie-Phishing_by_Country.jpg style=margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;/a/divbr /div class=separator style=clear:both;text-align:center;a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wgns7r5yd8c/Skl9FmwSxjI/AAAAAAAAH44/RvxEevrgU-o/s1600-h/pie-Phishing_by_Industry.jpg style=clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;img border=0 src=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wgns7r5yd8c/Skl9FmwSxjI/AAAAAAAAH44/RvxEevrgU-o/s400/pie-Phishing_by_Industry.jpg//a/divbr /b style=color:#444444;span style=font-size:large;MarkMonitor Research Shows How Online Scammers Are Using the Financial Crisis to Prey on Consumer Trust in Leading Brands /span/bbr /br /
Latest Brandjacking Index Examines How Fraudsters Abuse Financial Brands br /br /
SAN FRANCISCO, June 29 2009 – MarkMonitor®, the global leader in enterprise brand protection, today released the company’s latest Brandjacking Index® that studies how fraudsters are abusing major financial brand names and topical subjects like refinancing or unemployment to lure unsuspecting consumers to questionable websites. Examining four leading financial brands, the research indicates opportunistic fraudsters are quick to target citizens looking for ways to get back on their feet from financial challenges and the housing market bust. br /br /“Scammers are preying upon consumer hardship, demonstrating incredible creativity in combining technology, social engineering techniques and current events,” said Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer at MarkMonitor. “In this digital age, as the Internet pervades business and leisure, scam artists and fraudsters are quick to profit at the expense of trusted brands across a wide spectrum of industries.” br /br /
For this Brandjacking Index, MarkMonitor chose four top U.S. and international bank brands to monitor for scams focusing on terms such as foreclosure, mortgage, refinance and unemployed. MarkMonitor sifted through 134 million public domain records and searched billions of Web pages and spam email messages during the study period. br /br /div class=separator style=clear:both;text-align:center;a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wgns7r5yd8c/Skl9qBeC_hI/AAAAAAAAH5A/68jf37KDoNI/s1600-h/pie-Phishing_by_Country.jpg style=clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;img border=0 src=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wgns7r5yd8c/Skl9qBeC_hI/AAAAAAAAH5A/68jf37KDoNI/s400/pie-Phishing_by_Country.jpg//a/div
Research from the sample of financial brands shows profound levels of brand abuse, most notably through a rel=nofollow class=zem_slink target=_blank href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing title=Phishingphishing/a and suspected domain squatting. More than 7,300 cybersquatted domains were identified targeting the four financial brands in the study. Fraudsters registered domains that combined those financial brands with the focus terms at the rate of more than one domain per day between September 2008 and April 2009. Phishing attacks against the four financial brands numbered 10,000, representing a 36 percent increase in Q1 2009 from the previous quarter. br /br /
Some of the highlighted findings in this report are:bbr /Opportunistic abuse exploits economic hardship/bbr /ulliMore
than 7,300 domains exploited the four financial brands in the study,
with 16 percent of the domains registered since September 2008/lili24
percent of these cybersquatted domains registered since September 2008
used the focus terms – foreclosure, mortgage, refinance and unemployed
– translating to a registration rate of more than one cybersquatted
domain per day exploiting the focus terms/liliDomains registered since September 2008 were 50 percent more likely to use the focus terms than domains registered earlier/lili52
percent of the domains identified in the study did not encrypt customer
data, putting consumers’ personal identity information at risk/li/ulbProfound levels of phish attacks target a wide variety of companiesnbsp; and industries/bbr /ulliA record 502 organizations were phished in Q1 2009, an increase of 24 percent from Q1 2008/lili93 organizations were phished for the first time in Q1 2009; 82 percent were financial brands /liliWhile
financial services remain a popular target, payment service providers
were the most phished category, at 42 percent of total phish attacks/liliSocial
media is one of the fastest-growing target category for phishers, with
attacks increasing 241% against social media companies between Q1 2008
and Q1 2009/li/ulh4 Methodology/h4
The
Brandjacking Index is an independent report produced by MarkMonitor
that tracks and analyzes online abuses of leading brands. The
cornerstone of the report is the volume of public data analyzed by
MarkMonitor using the company’s proprietary algorithms – no customer
data or proprietary customer information is used to create the
Brandjacking Index. During the study period of January through April,
2009, MarkMonitor searched approximately 134 million public records
daily for brand abuse in domain data as well as Internet feeds from
leading international Internet Service Providers (a rel=nofollow class=zem_slink target=_blank href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_service_provider title=Internet service providerISPs/a), email
providers and other alliance partners. br /h4 About MarkMonitor/h4
MarkMonitor,
the global leader in enterprise brand protection, offers comprehensive
solutions and services that safeguard brands, reputation and revenue
from online risks. With end-to-end solutions that address the growing
threats of online fraud, brand abuse and unauthorized channels,
MarkMonitor enables a secure Internet for businesses and their
customers. The company’s exclusive access to data combined with its
patented real-time prevention, detection and response capabilities
provide wide-ranging protection to the ever-changing online risks faced
by brands today. For more information, visit a rel=nofollow target=_blank href=http://www.markmonitor.com/www.markmonitor.com/a.br /div align=center
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