Security Vendor Shuts Down Phishing Attacks Against BanksSecurity Vendor Shuts Down Phishing Attacks Against Banks

A security software maker has succeeded in shutting down Web sites that have been co-opted for launching phishing attacks directed at bank brands.

Cyota Inc. said Tuesday that FraudAction, its anti-phishing service that's being used by Barclay's Bank of Britain and five U.S. banks Cyota wouldn't name, has shut down more than 60% of reported phishing sites in less than five hours, and some in less than an hour. The lifespan of a typical phishing site today is 6.4 days.

Cyota also said its service alerted banks that their brands are under a phishing attack four hours before banks began receiving calls from customers. Three-quarters of all brands targeted by phishing attacks are in the financial-services industry.

Rapidly detecting and shutting down phishing sites is key to containing the phishing threat, which is reaching epidemic proportions. There were 6,600 unique phishing messages in October, up from 2,160 in August, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Phishers are expanding their operations to more Web sites, making them harder to detect: In October, 1,142 unique Web phishing sites disguised as legitimate addresses were reported, up from 543 in September.

Cyota scans 500 million E-mails a day in conjunction with Internet service providers and other partners, such as anti-spam software providers, to detect phishing scams, says Amir Orad, executive VP of marketing.

Yet despite being able to give banks a heads up that their brands are under attack, Cyota says phishers are clever and hard to stamp out. Most phishing sites are located overseas. In one case, Cyota traced a hijacked computer in a school in Taiwan. "While large ISPs are trying to contain phishing," Orad says, "it's easy for phishers to infiltrate an unknown provider in China or the Ukraine."