March 20, 2006 Microsoft Vows To Keep Pressure On Phishers By Gregg Keizer Courtesy of Microsoft on Monday promised to more than 50 new lawsuits against scammers before the middle of the year, its next step in a global campaign to combat Internet criminals. Company officials announced the plans at the debut of what Microsoft calls its Global Enforcement Initiative (GPEI), a worldwide effort to coordinate and expand anti-phishing work through prosecution, partnerships, and consumer protection software, such as the beefed-up browser scheduled to release later this year. By the end of June, Microsoft will have initiated at least 51 new anti-phishing cases in the company's European, Middle Eastern, and African territories, bringing the total filed to over 100. "Phishing is a crime. It undermines consumers' trust in the Internet and is an impediment to European policy-makers' and industries' efforts to boost citizens' use [of the] Internet," said Nick Holloway, president of Microsoft's EUMA (Europe/Mideast/Africa) group, in a statement. Holloway said Microsoft was committed to battling phishing, and would continue to partner with law enforcement, educate consumers, and develop anti-phishing technologies. Although Holloway didn't divulge details on the upcoming lawsuits, the company's statement said the filings would include formal complaints, court actions, and settlements against "serious criminals engaged in phishing." Microsoft claimed that it had shut down nearly 5,000 phishing sites worldwide, and had filed 117 phishing-related lawsuits in the U.S. alone during 2005. A recent said that more than half of U.S. business PC users receive at least one or more phishing e-mails daily, while the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an American organization, has noted that phishing attacks reached an all-time high in late 2005. E-mail This Story Print This Story Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			Spyware And Adware Continue To Plague PCs FTC Smacks Spammer With $900K Fine IM: Real-Time Securrity Problems For Financial Services Bot Herders Ready Attack Against Message Forums Researchers Warn Of Coming Tax Scams The High Cost Of Data Loss     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.