Gorinchem, 27 juli 2006 - Sophos, leverancier van software tegen virussen, spam, spyware en policy-misbruik, maakt bekend dat 75% van alle phising e-mails specifiek is gericht op PayPal of eBay gebruikers. Dit blijkt uit een onderzoek van Sophos, gebaseerd op alle inkomende phising e-mails sinds 1 januari 2006.
Typisch aan dit soort phising e-mails is dat de ontvanger wordt misleid aan de hand van een valse website die sterk lijkt op de PayPal of eBay website, maar die eigenlijk ontworpen is om gebruikersgegevens en paswoorden te stelen. Zowat 54,3 % van alle phising e-mails had als doel om informatie van PayPal gebruikers te stelen; 20,9 % van gebruikers van de online veilingsite eBay.
Gelieve hieronder tevens het volledige Engelstalige persbericht te vinden.
Voor meer informatie en/of een telefonische toelichting, gelieve contact op te nemen met:
Sophos Benelux
Marnix van Meer
Tel: +31 655700255
m.vanmeer(at)sophosbenelux.com
Creative Strategies
Elke De Ridder
Tel: +32 2 267 41 60
Ederidder(at)creative-strategies.be
75% of all phishing emails target PayPal and eBay users, Sophos reports IT security firm Sophos has revealed that over 75% of all phishing emails are targeting users of PayPal or eBay. Typically these phishing emails point recipients to a bogus website which looks like the real PayPal or eBay site, but is actually designed to steal usernames and passwords.
Experts at SophosLabs, the company's global network of threat analysis centres, scanned all phishing email messages received during 2006, and have revealed that 54.3 percent were attempting to steal information from users of PayPal. The second most common targets, at 20.9 percent, were users of the eBay online auction service.
"The reason why the phishers focus so much on PayPal and eBay is because they are so popular around the world. Although bank customers do also suffer from phishing attacks, they tend to be less likely to have the global reach that these net giants have," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "PayPal and eBay have worked hard to educate and protect their customers from these kind of attacks, but the best solution is for computer users to be more savvy about securing their identity in the first place, and think before they click."
PayPal and eBay, like Sophos, are members of the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), an organisation dedicated to wiping out internet scams and fraud.
Research issued earlier this year by Sophos revealed that 58% of people receive at least one phishing email every day.
Sophos recommends that companies protect their computers with a consolidated solution to defend against all computer threats.
Further information and a graphic of an eBay phishing email can be found
HERE