Swallowing the Bait, Hook, Line, and Sinker: Phishing, Pharming, and Now Rat-ing!

Abstract

Phishing and pharming continue to plague many financial institutions and electronic commerce (e-commerce) Web sites. Security experts estimate annual losses from computer crime total in the billions, but there are actually no valid statistics on the losses from this type of crime because no one knows how many cases go unreported. The array of online threats grows all the time. Sophisticated criminals have now turned to a new activity of rat-ing, where criminals can watch everything the user is typing from other parts of the globe. The new activity is difficult to detect. Companies have devised various methods of protecting their customers. They are beginning to integrate more security, well beyond simple user names and passwords, as the need for more stringent methods becomes imperative. Various countries also have passed identity fraud legislation, but the global nature of cybercrime raises difficult legislative problems of jurisdiction as criminals use off-shore servers and Internet sites to avoid domestic regulations.