Account holders at large banks apparently have become a much more popular target for phishing fraudsters than credit union members, according to RSA, the Security Division of EMC.
RSA said its Anti-Fraud Command Center reported that American credit unions accounted for only 3% of the attacks it detected in August, the lowest figure it has recorded to date. That compares with 24% of the attacks in August of 2009.
Attacks on regional banks, meanwhile, accounted for 32% of detected phishing forays, RSA said in its September report, while national banks were the targets of 65% of the attacks.
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In the past couple years, credit unions had accounted at times for more than a third of the attacks reported in the RSA monthly report, but that number has fallen as fraudsters apparently are focusing on bigger prey, especially commercial accounts.
Overall, phishing attacks increased by 7% in August from the month before, with 17,935 attacks recorded.
"The bulk of the increase resulted from attacks targeted at a handful of financial institutions, which is typical of phishers who prefer to focus their effort on a targeted group rather than spread their attacks across the board," RSA said in its monthly report.
The United States is still the largest host, by far, accounting for 60% of phishing attacks, while Brazil was second at 7%. The number of brands attacked held steady, 216 in August compared with 217 in July, the online security services company said.
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