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July Phishing Attacks Ravaged North America
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By Brian J. Gillette
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trimMail Network Advisory: Email-based phishing attacksintercepted by trimMail Inboxes across North America are up awhopping 271% this month, while viruses have receded by 58%.Forty three percent of all phishing attacks are aimed at PayPalcustomers, while another 10% target eBay. In the same period,phishing attacks aimed at banks have dropped over 25%.
Currently, over half of the intercepted phishing attempts targettwo sisters: eBay and PayPal. Both persist in sendingHTML-formatted messages. While HTML may provide a modicum of eyecandy, it allows attackers to easily hide dangerous scripts andURLs behind otherwise innocuous appearing copy. That's why HTMLformatting is ridiculously inappropriate for messaging byfinancial and other security-sensitive services.
However, as it is unlikely that giant e-mailers will changeformatting tactics anytime soon, administrators would be wise tointercept the beasts lurking behind HTML at the network border,before they get a chance to clean out their users.
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