ARLINGTON, Va. -- Credit unions continue to attract increasing attention of phishers, pharmers and other malware attackers, according to a new report from Cyveillance.
The Arlington-based online risk monitoring and management firm says phishing attacks on credit unions grew by 584% from January to February, while banks saw a 325% increase and payment services a 285% increase during the same time period.
Cyveillance says its security experts found that overall, the two leading online identity theft risks, phishing and malware, increased significantly in the first two months of 2007, with the number of brands being phished growing by 50% and malware attacks growing by 200% across all industries.
The company also says it has specifically identified more than 1 million suspected stolen Social Security numbers on the Internet in just the past two months. Malware is often used to collect those numbers, and the company says the average number of sites it has detected with malware has risen from 20,000 a day in December to 60,000 a day in February.
"As our research shows, the breadth and depth of online risk are on the rise, with increasingly elaborate attack schemes and tactics," said Panos Anastassiadis, CEO of Cyveillance.
The company's complete report--"Online Financial Fraud and Identity Theft 2007"--is available at www.cyveillance.com/IDTheftreport.
