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The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported that the total number of phishing Web sites detected in the third quarter was 364,424, a 21.8% decrease from 466,065 in the second quarter.
The APWG said the second-quarter figures were an “all-time-high” for phishing attacks and the third-quarter data is a return to more historical norms. The APWG tracks the spoofed sites and emails that phishing fraudsters use to gull consumers into revealing passwords, PINs, and other sensitive data.
The retail/service sector, which includes music and e-commerce sites, garnered the high share—43%—of attacks in the July-through-September quarter. Financial targets, which are mainly banks, came in second at 21%. Payment services, at 10%, followed Internet service providers, at 12%. In the second quarter, payment services attracted 13% of attacks.
Malware, software meant to surreptitiously capture sensitive data such as passwords and card numbers, continues to wreak havoc on personal computers. More than 71% of the malware infections detected in the third quarter were Trojans, which is software designed to look legitimate.
Malware has been especially problematic this year among hotel operators and their food-and-beverage services.
Malware is especially a problem in China, where the infection rate is 47.2%, the most anywhere. The least infected nation is Norway, with a 19.7% rate.
