Friday | 5 September, 2008
Computerworld
New sites let users find and report phishing
Two new antiphishing Web will make it easier for users to report and learn about phishing attempts.
Computerworld Buyer's Guide - Vendors Matched to this Article
Related Features
  • +

    Your World. . . Hacked 02/10/2007 10:51:23

    As your business becomes more collaborative and global, the risks to your company’s trade secrets rise proportionally. Fortunately, there are new strategies to protect the data that allows you to compete
    The call to Bob Bailey, an IT executive with a major US government contractor, came on an otherwise ordinary day in October 2003. "Why are you attacking us?" demanded the caller, an IT leader with a Silicon Valley manufacturer. He wanted to know why Bailey's company had launched a denial-of-service attack against his network
  • +

    Ticked Off at Tick the Box Mentality 04/02/2008 13:01:15

    Does your executive search firm know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?
    Does your executive search firm know its MIS managers from its elbow? Does it even know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?
Additional Resources
Executive Guides
Whitepapers
Zones
Zone logoZones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our Computerworld newsletters!
Computerworld's twice-daily news service keeps you in touch with the latest, most important headlines from Australia and around the world.
Keep up with the latest virtualisation technologies, products, news and features.
RSS Feeds

Security vendors are launching two Web sites aimed at helping people report and avoid phishing attacks. The Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination Squad (PIRT) is as a volunteer effort designed to take down phishing sites, while CipherTrust's PhishRegistry.org site, due to be launched on Tuesday, will be a service designed to warn legitimate Web sites when they are being spoofed by phishers.

The PIRT site is looking for volunteers so it can report on new phishing scams and get in touch with authorities to have the Web sites in question taken down as quickly as possible.

"It's the first public takedown community we know of, and we hope to start nailing these sites," the site's founders said in a statement. PIRT is being managed by antispyware vendor Sunbelt Software and Computer Cops, owners of the CastleCops online security network.

The second effort, backed by security vendor CipherTrust, is a free online notification service where companies can register their Web sites and then be notified whenever CipherTrust's sensors detect that legitimate Web pages are being spoofed by phishers.

Phishregistry.org will use the same "Phisherprinting" algorithms used by the company's CipherTrust Radar service to determine whether a site is being spoofed, said Paul Judge, the company's chief technology officer. "This is an effort to allow a broader set of organizations to benefit from this monitoring."

These two new Web sites represent a growing movement to fight back against the phishers, who send unsolicited e-mail directing users to phony Web sites, all in the hopes of tricking them into revealing sensitive information.

Last week, Microsoft pledged to bring about 100 legal actions against phishers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) over the next few months. Organizations such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group (http://www.antiphishing.org/) and Digital PhishNet (http://www.digitalphishnet.org/) already have been formed to combat this growing problem.

According to a poll of 600 business users conducted by security firm Sophos PLC last month, 22 percent of users receive at least five phishing e-mail messages every day.

That's clearly too much, according to Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst with Yankee Group Research. "Users are mad, and damn it, they're not going to take it anymore," he said.

Computerworld Buyer's Guide - Vendors Matched to this Article
Market Place

Computerworld Member Login


 

Prioritizing Services with IT Service Management (ITSM)

Computerworld Live Webinar
Wednesday 20th, August 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney, Australia)

To be repeated on:

Thursday 4th, September 2008
11:00am EST (Sydney Australia)

Sign up and receive a free copy of The Forrester WaveTM Service Desk Management Tools, Q2 2008 at the conclusion of the Webinar.

Attend and discover:

  • How to deliver value to your business through ITSM
  • Best practice ITSM implementation
  • Why emphasis is changing from optimizing IT management processes to better servicing customers and demonstrating real dollar value
  • If service-oriented ITSM is best for your business
Whitepaper

EMC Data Profiling for File System and Exchange Server Environments

There has been an explosive and seemingly unmanageable growth of information in business today. Discover how EMC can utilise intelligent data analysis to develop a strategic plan for your business and optimise your organisation’s file system and Exchange Environments.

Enterprise IT Buyer's Guide
Find Technology Vendors Fast
 
Find vendors by name | Find by category
Sponsored Links