Holiday shopping isn't just for the honest. Phishing attacks also are expected to increase, with a renewed emphasis on e-commerce and gaming sites.
That's according to the third-quarter 2010 Phishing Trends Report from Internet Identity, an online security firm based in Tacoma, Wash., which also found that credit unions continue to be fair game for fraudsters with foul intentions for user credentials they can steal from the unsuspecting.
According to IID, phishing attacks through impersonating e-commerce and gaming sites-excluding eBay-increased more than 300% worldwide from July to September, compared with the year-ago period.
That trend is expected to continue through the holiday period, said IID, whose client list includes financial institutions, e-commerce companies and Internet service providers.
"As the world moves into the highly active online shopping season, we expect to see increases worldwide in e-commerce attacks," said Rod Rasmussen, IID's chief technology officer. "In addition, with the online gaming industry generating over $15 billion annually and growing rapidly, it is the kind of target that is hard for criminals to resist."
Meanwhile, the number of credit unions attacked decreased in the third quarter but individual credit unions were hit with more-concentrated phishing forays, IID said.
For instance, one targeted CU experienced 10 fraud domain attacks from July 2-4 and was hit again on Aug. 12 with five more attacks.
Overall, there were 48 attacks against 11 credit unions recorded in July-September this year, compared with 46 attacks against 20 credit unions in the year-ago quarter, IID said.
