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Majority Of Domain Names Used By Phishers Are Legitimate
Mike Sachoff
Staff Writer
2009-05-28
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The majority (81%) of domain names used for phishing are legitimate domains that have been hacked, according to a new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).
 | | Majority Of Domain Names Used By Phishers Are Legitimate |  |
Among 30,454 phishing domains, only 5,991 domain names (18.5%) were registered by phishers. The rest of the small percentage of the domains used in phishing belonged to subdomain resellers such as ISPs and other online services.
"Phishing most often takes place on compromised Web servers, where the phishers place their phishing pages unbeknownst to the site operators,"" says APWG.
"This method gains the phishers free hosting, and complicates take-down efforts because suspending a domain name or hosting account also disables the resolution of the legitimate user's site. Phishing on a compromised Web site typically takes place on a subdomain or in a subdirectory, where the phish is not easily noticed by the site's operator or visitors."
Major findings include:
1. Phishers are increasingly using subdomain services to host and manage their phishing sites. This trend shows phishers migrating to services that cannot be taken down by registrars or registry operators, thereby frustrating some takedowns and extending the uptimes of attacks.
2. Phishers continue to target specific TLDs and specific domain name registrars, and shift their preferences over time.
3. The amount of Internet names and numbers used for phishing has remained fairly steady over the past two years.
4. Anti-phishing programs implemented by domain name registries can have a remarkable effect on the up-times (durations) of phishing attacks.
5. There are decreases in phishing on IP addresses and the use of brand names in domain names to fool users. Phishers are not using IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names).
About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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