New Phishing Research From Easy Solutions Finds Phishing Has Become the “Smash and Grab” Street Crime of the Internet

Analysis of Over 3,000 Phishing Attacks on Top US Bank Provides Insights on How to Characterize and Combat Attackers

MIAMI--()--Easy Solutions, the Total Fraud Protection® company, today issued a new research report, “Know Your Enemy: Understanding Phishing Strategies.” The report analyzes over 3,030 phishing attacks on a Top 25 US bank that took place from September to December of 2015.

The Easy Solutions research team was able to group phishing sites into three main clusters, based on how the sites were created, and where and how the site domains were registered. The report also found that the average number of potential targets per phishing attack was only 190 individuals. Given the large number of attacks, this indicates a willingness on the part of phishers to essentially ‘smash and grab’, and set up unique sites that are likely to only be visited by a very small number of victims.

Additional analysis on each group of phishing sites allowed Easy Solutions to further categorize the attackers. By using information such as the attacker’s location, the type of phishkit used and Whois information of the domain, the researchers identified 12 subgroups, which helped the team understand the attackers’ strategies, locations and motivations.

“These findings are important because they demonstrate that it is possible to effectively characterize a diverse attacker population that is persistently launching attacks against a brand,” said Daniel Ingevaldson, CTO of Easy Solutions. “When institutions can more effectively characterize their attackers, they can then more successfully combat phishing attacks – by tuning consumer education campaigns, changing web site countermeasures, or adjusting risk scoring during phishing campaigns. Only by studying how these criminals operate can we develop more effective countermeasures, to help financial institutions reduce the rate of successful phishing attempts on their brands.”

The Easy Solutions product portfolio delivers cross-channel fraud protection across transactions performed on online and mobile platforms, as well as via ATMs, Point-of-Sale terminals, and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems for enterprise organizations across a range of industries, including financial services, retail, and professional services. Easy Solutions thwarts criminals at all three phases of the fraud lifecycle - planning, launching, and cashing – while ensuring that authorized users can conduct business.

The full report can be found at: https://www.easysol.net/images/stories/downloads/phishing-report-feb2016.pdf.

ABOUT EASY SOLUTIONS

Easy Solutions is a leading security vendor focused on the comprehensive detection and prevention of electronic fraud across all devices, channels and clouds. Our products range from anti-phishing and secure browsing to multifactor authentication and transaction anomaly detection, offering a one-stop shop for multiple fraud prevention services. The online activities of over 85 million customers 320 leading financial services companies, security firms, retailers, airlines and other entities all over the world are protected by Easy Solutions fraud prevention systems.

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Latin America: Cra. 13A No. 98 – 21 Of. 401. Bogota, Colombia. Phone: +57 1 – 742 5570

Contacts

For Easy Solutions
Kari Walker, 703-928-9996
kari@zagcommunications.com

Release Summary

Easy Solutions today issued a new research report, “Know Your Enemy: Understanding Phishing Strategies", which analyzes and classifies over 3,030 phishing attacks on a Top 25 US bank from 2015.

Contacts

For Easy Solutions
Kari Walker, 703-928-9996
kari@zagcommunications.com