Phishing attacks on the increase

Consumers should not fear a sharp rise in incidents of phishing, according to the banking organisation APACS.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee reported this week that incidents of phishing - when criminals attempt to trick people into revealing confidential information by email, had risen by a factor of eight between January 2005 and September 2006.

The Lords' committe questioned APACS as part of an investigation into internet security for consumers, and the procedures the financial industry in the UK had put in place to protect customers.

Colin Whittaker head of security at APACS, said criminals had boosted the amount of phishing emails sent randomly to consumers because greater awareness of the problem had led to a drop in responses.

He said: "It is an indication of the banks success in combating phishing as the less successful phishing emails are, the more need to be sent out."

Outlining the size of the problem, he said: "Phishing accounts for anywhere between a quarter and half of the attacks that we see that cause losses on customer's accounts."

This theory was backed up by Sandra Quinn spokeswoman for APACS. She said: “Half year figures for 2006 and the figure stood at £22.5m, an increase of slightly more than half on 2005. The rise won’t be as high in percentage terms as the rise in 2005.”

However, when pushed by the Lords to name the banks that perform worst in dealing with phishing attacks, APACS was reluctant to point the finger. Whittaker said that it was unfair as “certain banks are attacked more in the UK than others depending on their branch size".

It said: "Fraudsters are very aware of the kind of banks that we bank with so they tend to attack the banks we use most often so it’s often the well known high street banks that come under attack.”

APACS also pointed out that although banks do not have to, they current refund victims of online fraud. This, Quinn hoped would, “give consumers more online confidence".

Sandra Alzetta, vice president for Consumer Market Development at Visa also shared this view, telling the committee that Visa were also trying to keep customers safe from online fraud and give them more confidence online.

“From an online shopping perspective we know there are some huge benefits to the consumer from online shopping, but we do a lot of work in this area and we know there are still some concerns about security so we’re doing a number of things there to do with verification,” she said.

Verified by Visa is a new security scheme, which consists of a pop-up window from Visa after you complete an online transaction. It prompts you to verify passwords and personal details, it is according to Alzetta “very similar to what’s happened on the high street… with chip and pin.”