Hackers Increase Attacks on Big E-Commerce and Retail Sites
Cybercriminals are increasingly using phishing attack campaigns to target retailers and banks in countries such as China and India, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s (APWG) latest report covering phishing activity. APWG notes an increasingly large number of retailers who had not been targeted previously became the targets of phishing campaigns during the last half of 2013. Taobao, the consumer-focused e-commerce unit of China’s Alibaba, was targeted by 19,290 phishing attempts during the period, second only to eBay’s PayPal payments unit, which was targeted by 24,580. Alibaba’s business-to-business commerce site Alibaba.com was another common target, along with rival Chinese firm Tencent, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and banks in Latin America, India, and the Middle East. APWG’s report notes 85 percent of phishing websites originating in China now target Chinese retail brands. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ David Burg says hackers are shifting their focus in part because large, established U.S. firms, especially those in the finance sector, are better protected than their oversees peers. “Phishers appear to be looking for companies that are newly popular, have vulnerable user bases, and/or are not ready to defend themselves against phishing,” says APWG’s Greg Aaron.
From “Hackers Aim Phishing Attacks at New Retail Brands”
Investor’s Business Daily (06/03/14) Tsuruoka, Doug