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APWG Report Finds Phishing Surges Late in Year in 2015
[March 22, 2016]

APWG Report Finds Phishing Surges Late in Year in 2015


The APWG reports in its new Phishing Activity Trends Report that the number of phishing attacks surged during the 2015 holiday season. Phishers unleashed a barrage of phishing scams in December 2015, in what is now an annual attempt to part consumers from their money. During the holiday season, the Retail / Service sector became the most-targeted industry sector, while during the rest of the year, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) had been the most-targeted industry sector.

There was also a major increase in PUPs - Potentially Unwanted Programs. These are programs that are installed without the user's consent, as part of bundles with other software. Some of these programs are malicious, or do not reveal what sensitive data they collect about the user.

According to Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director and Trends Report contributing analyst, PUPs accounted for nearly a third of infections in the fourth quarter of 2015. Corrons noted: "Aggressive distribution techniques and software programs used by PUPs means that they achieve a high rate of installation in users' computers. If we look at the global percentage of infected computers, which is 35.45 percent, we can see that it increased compared to previous quarters, and this was mainly driven by PUPs."

The full text of the report is available here: http://docs.apwg.org/reports/apwg_trends_report_q4_2015.pdf

The APWG membership will be convening June 1-3 in Toronto for their annual general meeting and research conference to discuss these and other issues related to the global cybercrime outlook: http://apwg.org/apwg-events/ecrime2016/

About the APWG

The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is the global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition of more than 1800 institutions working to unify the global response to electronic crime. Since 2004, the APWG has developed and curated one of the world's largest NGO-managed clearinghouses of cybercrime event data yet constructed. APWG's directors, managers and research fellows advise and correspond with: national governments; global governance bodies like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Telecommunications Union and ICANN; hemispheric and global trade groups; and multilateral treaty organizations such as the European Commission, the G8 High Technology Crime Subgroup, Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Europol EC3 and the Organization of American States. APWG is a member of the steering group of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative at the Commonwealth of Nations. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs and Telcos, the law enforcement community, solutions providers, multi-lateral treaty organizations, research centers, trade associations and government agencies. The APWG's <www.apwg.org> and <education.apwg.org> websites offer the public, industry and government agencies practical information about phishing and electronically mediated fraud as well as pointers to pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection. The APWG is co-founder and co-manager of the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Messaging Convention, the global online safety public awareness collaborative <https://education.apwg.org/safety-messaging-convention/> and founder/curator of the eCrime Researchers Summit, the world's only peer-reviewed conference dedicated specifically to electronic crime studies <www.ecrimeresearch.org>. Among APWG's corporate sponsors are: AhnLab, Area 1, AT&T (T), Afilias Ltd., Avast!, AVG Technologies, Bangkok Bank, BBN Technologies, Barracuda Networks, BillMeLater, Bkav, Blue Coat, BrandMail, BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, CSC Digital Brand Services, Check Point Software Technologies, Claro (News - Alert), Cloudmark, Comcast, CSIRTBANELCO, Cyber Defender, Cyveillance, DigiCert, Domain Tools, Donuts, Easy Solutions, eBay/PayPal (EBAY), eCert, EC Cert, ESET, EST Soft, Facebook, FeelSafe Digital, FEBRABAN, Fortinet, FraudWatch International, F-Secure, GetResponse, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Google, GroupIB, Hauri, Hitachi Systems, Ltd., Huawei (News - Alert) Symantec, ICANN, Infoblox, IronPort, ING Bank, Intuit, Interac, Internet.bs, IT Matrix, iThreat Cyber Group, iZOOlogic, LaCaixa, Lenos Software, MailChannels, MailJet, MailChimp, MailShell, MarkMonitor, M86Security, McAfee (News - Alert) (MFE), Melbourne IT, MessageLevel, Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mimecast, Mirapoint, NHN, MyPW, nProtect Online Security, Netcraft, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominet, Nominum, Public Interest Registry, Panda Software, Phishlabs, PhishMe, Planty.net, Prevelent, Prevx, Proofpoint, QinetiQ (News - Alert), RSA Security (EMC), Rakuten, Return Path, RiskIQ, RuleSpace, SalesForce, SecureBrain, SendGrid, S21sec, SIDN, SilverPop, SiteLock, SnoopWall, SoftForum, SoftLayer (News - Alert), SoftSecurity, SOPHOS, SunTrust, SurfControl, Symantec (SYMC), Tagged, TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), TransCreditBank, Trend Micro (TMIC), Trustwave, Vasco (VDSI), VADE-RETRO, VeriSign (VRSN), Wombat Security Technologies, Yahoo! (YHOO), and zvelo.





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