Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Is Phishing Finally on the Decline?

by Lee Bains on August 27, 2009 at 06:36 AM

It's about time. The Associated Press writes today that mercifully, IBM reports that phishing attacks are on the decline.

Phishing, for the uninitiated, has nothing to do with Vermont hippies. Phishing scams are typically comprised of a sketchy e-mail that links the recipient to a malicious Web page (often disguised as the log-in page of a bank or social networking site). There, the duped Web-surfer is asked for personal information -- an e-mail address, password, account number, or goodness knows what else. If you've ever read Switched, you've read plenty about them and have, hopefully, learned how to steer clear of them.

Fortunately, though, IBM reports that, in the first six months of 2009, phishing constituted a mere 0.1-percent of total spam. That's a marked decline from the first half of last year by any account. Different reports pegged those numbers between 0.2- and 0.8-percent. In a conversation with the AP, IBM's Kris Lamb, whose team put together the report, credited smarter browsing and superior security software for the plunge. He does, though, warn that the numbers may jump in a few months, since phishing rates are highest around the Holidays. [Via: AP/Google]

Tags: ibm, identity theft, IdentityTheft, phishing, scam, security, spam, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular