The Avalanche gang has re-emerged and phishing attacks havesoared, according to Internet Identity, a Tacoma, Wash.-basedInternet security specialist.

IID said websites infected with malware increased 89% in thethird quarter of 2011 from the second quarter, mostly because of arenewal of activity from the Avalanche phishing gang, which IIDblamed for two-thirds of all phishing attacks in the second half of2009.

Traditional phishing attacks, those using e-mails to trickrecipients into logging in and giving up identifying information,are actually down, but malware that infects websites have soared,the company said in its Third Quarter eCrime Report.

The most impersonated organizations, IID said, include the FDIC,Federal Reserve, IRS and NACHA. Malware, once on a victim'scomputer, can monitor or control activity, steal data, send spamand commit fraud.

“Weknew Avalanche would resurface and it is apparent that theyhave made a conscious decision to provide their massive botnet asan infrastructure for hire. The most prevalent use of their networkis sites that attempt to get victims to install malware on theircomputers,” said Rod Rasmussen, IID president and CTO.

Once malware is on a victim's computer, the perpetrator canmonitor or control both personal and business computer activity —enabling them to steal data, send spam, and commit fraud.

Criminals lure people in by creating appealing websites,desirable downloads and compelling stories, then trap unsuspectingvictims, often through “drive-by” websites where malwareautomatically installs, Rasmussen said.

Money transfer and e-commerce phishing showed the largest areasof decline while phishing attacks impersonating national banksstayed strong, IID said, citing “significant security steps takenby Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others.”

“Cybercriminals are always trying to adapt to the latestsecurity methods and threat awareness, and as an industry we muststay one step ahead of these increasingly sophisticated cybergangs,” said Rasmussen, whose reports are drawn from his company'sexperts as well as organizations such as ICANN (InternetCorporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and APWG (Anti-Phishing Working Group).