Phishers still favor spam over social networking sites

SpamTitan Technologies announced the findings of its latest survey of SMBs on the continued danger of phishing attacks, and it shows that despite media reports about the rise in phishing on social networking sites its perceived threat to businesses is marginal in comparison with traditional spam techniques.

An overwhelming majority (75 percent) of IT managers surveyed regard traditional spam as the top security threat. Opinion is divided over whether business network security measures have caused phishing attacks to migrate from email to social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook with 37 percent saying it is a growing phenomenon while 31 percent disagree.

Instead they regard the move to on-line phishing as a natural response to the growth in the user communities of the main social networking sites. Clear policies along with improvements in user education and awareness topped recommendations as the best way to beat phishing in all its forms.

SpamTitan’s survey findings about the phishing threat posed by social networking sites are consistent with another Internet security report from earlier this year. According to antivirus software vendor Kaspersky Lab, Facebook’s share of phishing attacks in the first three months of 2010 was just 5.7 percent. This earned it fourth place on the list of most-targeted Web sites a long way behind the leaders HSBC, eBay and PayPal which alone accounts for more than 52 percent of all scams.