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Phishers Try To Reel In Small Businesses

Identity theft costs U.S. businesses and consumers $50 billion to $60 billion a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

By

March 21, 2005 12:00 AM

Online phishing scams come in various flavors. Yet the basic MO is to steal a well-recognized brand such as eBay or Citibank and attach the logo to an E-mail with an innocent-sounding subject line such as, "Account activation required." The victim is then transported to a phony Web site where personal data is taken down and used to commit fraud.

Phishing is by no means the only online threat faced by small-business owners. Identity theft costs U.S. businesses and consumers $50 billion to $60 billion a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Banking activity accounts for 56% of reported incidents.

chart -- Phishing Concern Last month, a Miami businessman sued Bank of America to recover $90,000 that he claims was stolen and diverted to a bank in Latvia after his computer was infected by a Trojan horse computer virus. His PC was found to be infected by coreflood, which logs victims' keystrokes through a back door installed on their computers. The lawsuit claims that Bank of America was negligent in not alerting him to the existence of the virus.

Online thieves are becoming more sophisticated in their techniques. During January, the Anti-Phishing Working Group reported "significant gains" in attackers using malicious code to gain access to end-user keystrokes. Password-stealing Trojans aren't just coming through E-mail, the group says in a report on its Web site. "We have seen multiple attacks through Microsoft Messenger, where Trojan horses and password-stealing keyloggers are run."

The Bropia worm had five variants in January alone. Also common are blended attacks that use combinations of E-mail, instant messaging, and Web sites to gain access to confidential information. Three-quarters of 568 small-business owners recently surveyed by Forrester Research say they're concerned about phishing.

Should financial institutions be held financially liable for phishing vulnerabilities associated with their names? Share your thoughts with us.

Steven Marlin,
Associate Editor
smarlin@cmp.com

Financial Misdeeds
Have you or has anyone you know received fraudulent E-mail that appeared to come from a financial provider?

The recent spate of identity thefts has heightened public concern about the safety of personal information. Phishing has caused alarm, too. A quarter of small-business owners interviewed by Forrester Research say they've either received fraudulent E-mails from financial providers or know someone who has.

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