Gartner: Phishing Angriffe stiegen 2007 an – Schaden von mehr als 3 Milliarden US-Dollar

Nach einer Studie des IT-Marktforschungs- und Beratungsunternehmens Gartner stiegen Phishing-Angriffe 2007 in den USA weiter rapide an. 3,2 Milliarden US-Dollar gingen aufgrund dieser Attacken verloren. Vor allem Bankkarten wie die EC-Karte (sog. „Debit Cards“) sind Ziele der Betrüger.

„11 Prozent der Befragten gaben an, keinerlei Sicherheitssoftware (wie Anti-Virus oder Anti-Spyware Lösungen) zu benutzen und weitere 45 Prozent verwenden nur kostenfreie Software“, erklärt Avivah Litan, Vice President bei Gartner.

Gartner Survey Shows Phishing Attacks Escalated in 2007; More than $3 Billion Lost to These Attacks

Debit Cards Emerged as the Financial Instrument Targeted Most by Fraudsters

STAMFORD, Conn., December 17, 2007 — Phishing attacks in the United States soared in 2007 as $3.2 billion was lost to these attacks, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. The survey found that 3.6 million adults lost money in phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in August 2007, as compared with the 2.3 million who did so the year before.

According to a survey of more than 4,500 online U.S. adults in August 2007 (which was representative of the online U.S. adult population) the attacks were more successful in 2007 than they were in the previous two years. Of consumers who received phishing e-mails in 2007, 3.3 percent say they lost money because of the attack, compared with 2.3 percent who lost money in 2006, and 2.9 percent who did so in 2005, according to similar Gartner surveys during those years.

"Phishing attacks are becoming more surreptitious and are often designed to drop malware that steals user credentials and sensitive information from consumer desktops," said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Anti-phishing detection and prevention solutions are available but not utilized widely enough to stop the damage. These must be deployed and combined with solutions that also proactively detect and stop malware-based attacks."

"Customer-facing organizations cannot expect their customers' desktops to be protected from malicious code, nor from e-mail and/or advertising traps that lure innocent consumers to Web sites that turn out to be infection points," Ms. Litan said. "In fact, 11 percent of online adults say they don't use any security software (such as antivirus or anti-spyware products) on their desktop, and another 45 percent only use what they can get for free."

The average dollar loss per incident declined to $886 from $1,244 lost on average in 2006 (with a median loss of $200 in 2007), but because there were more victims, $3.2 billion was lost to phishing in 2007, according to surveyed consumers. There was a bit of relative good news, however; the amounts that consumers were able to recover also increased. Some 1.6 million adults recovered about 64 percent of their losses in 2007, up from the 54 percent that 1.5 million adults recovered in 2006.