Phishing Activity Trends Report

July, 2006

Phishing is a form of online identity theft that employs both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal
consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use 'spoofed' emails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such asaccount usernames and passwords. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers
often convince recipients to respond. Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials
directly, often using key logging systems to intercept consumers online account user names and passwords, and tocorrupt local and remote navigational infrastructures to misdirect consumers to counterfeit websites and to authentic
websites through phisher-controlled proxies that can be used to monitor and intercept consumers’ keystrokes.
The monthly Phishing Activity Trends Report analyzes phishing attacks reported to the Anti-Phishing Working Group(APWG) via the organization’s website at http://www.antiphishing.org or email submission toreportphishing@antiphishing.org. The APWG phishing attack repository is the Internet’s most comprehensive archiveof email fraud and phishing activity. The APWG additionally measures the evolution, proliferation and propagation ofcrimeware drawing from the independent research of our member companies. In the second half of this report are
tabulations of crimeware statistics and reportage on specific criminal software detected by our member researchers.

Highlights
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Number of unique phishing reports received in July:
Number of unique phishing sites received in July:
Number of brands hijacked by phishing campaigns in July:
Number of brands comprising the top 80% of phishing campaigns in July:
Country hosting the most phishing websites in July:
Contain some form of target name in URL:
No hostname just IP address:
Percentage of sites not using port 80:
Average time online for site:
Longest time online for site:

23670
14191
15415United States
46 %
42 %
8.9 %
4.8 days
31 days

Methodology
APWG is continuing to refine and develop our tracking and reporting methodology. We have recently re-instated thetracking and reporting of unique phishing reports (email campaigns) in addition to unique phishing sites. An email
campaign is a unique email sent out to multiple users, directing them to a specific phishing web site, (multiplecampaigns may point to the same web site). APWG counts unique phishing report emails as those in a given monthwith the same subject line in the email.
APWG also tracks the number of unique phishing websites. This is now determined by unique base URLs of thephishing sites.
APWG is also tracking crimeware instances (unique software applications as determined by MD5 hash of thecrimeware sample) as well as unique sties that are distributing crimeware (typically via browser drive-by exploits).
The Phishing Attack Trends Report is published monthly by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association focusedon eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing and email spoofing. For further
information, please contact Ronnie Manning at rmanning@websense.com or 858.320.9274 or APWG Secretary General Peter
Cassidy at 617.669.1123. Analysis for the Phishing Attack Trends Report has been donated by the following companies:

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Phishing Email Reports And Phishing Site Trends
The total number of unique phishing reports submitted to APWG in July 2006 was 23,670 – a decrease of nearly five
thousand attack reports from June and is the second highest number ever recorded by the APWG. This is a count ofunique phishing email reports received by the APWG from the public and its research partners.

Phishing Reports Received July '05 - July '06
28,571
28000
23670

24000
20000
16000 14135 13776 13562

15820

16882

15244

17877 17163 18480 17490

20109

12000
8000
40000July

September

NovemberJanuary

M archM ay

July

The number of unique phishing websites detected by APWG was 14,191 in July 2006, an increase in unique phishingsites from June and the highest ever recorded by the APWG.

New Phishing Sites by Month July '05 - July '06
16000

14191
11121

12000

9715

9103 9666

January

March

11976
10047

7197

8000

5259
4564

5242

4367 4630

4000

0July

September

NovemberAnti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

MayJuly

Top Used Ports Hosting Phishing Data Collection Servers
July saw a continuation of a trend of HTTP
port 80 being the most popular port used at
91.7% of all phishing sites reported.

Port 4443(5.04%)
Port 680(2.73%)

7 other ports <.2%(.53%)

Port 80(91.7%)

Brands and Legitimate Entities Hijacked By Email Phishing Attacks
Number ofReported Brands

160
120
80

71

84

106 96121
93

137 130
101 105

154

92
70

400
Ju
A u lySe gu
pt stemb
O er
ctoNo beve r
De mb
ce e rmb
Ja e rnuFe a ry
bruar
M yarchAprilMayJuneJuly

July 2006 showed the highest
number of brands subjected tophishing attacks recorded by
the APWG to date.

Hijacked Brands by Month
July '05 - July '06

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Most Targeted Industry Sectors
Financial Services continue to be the mosttargeted industry sector, growing to 93.5%
of all attacks in the month of July.

Retail (1.3%)
ISP (3.2%)
Miscellaneous(1.9%)

FinancialServices(93.5%)Web Phishing Attack Trends
Countries Hosting Phishing Sites
In July, Websense® Security Labs™ saw a continuation of the top three countries hosing phishing websites. TheUnited States remains the on the top of the list with 29.85%. The rest of the top 10 breakdown is as follows –Republic of Korea 13.34%, China 12%, France 5.87%, Australia 4.56%, Germany 3.32%, Japan 3.04%, Canada
1.78%, Thailand 1.59%, and Italy 1.52%.

Top 10 Phishing Sites Hosting Countries
ChinaFranceAustralia

Germany
Republic of Ko reaJapanCanadaThailand
Italy

United States

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

PROJECT: Crimeware
Crimeware Taxonomy & Samples According to Classification in July 2006
PROJECT: Crimeware categorizes crimeware attacks as follows, though the taxonomy will grow as variations inattack code are spawned:

Phishing-based Trojans - Keyloggers
Definition: Crimeware code which is designed with the intent of collecting information on the end-user in order tosteal those users' credentials. Unlike most generic keyloggers, phishing-based keyloggers have tracking components
which attempt to monitor specific actions (and specific organizations, most importantly financial institutions and online
retailers and ecommerce merchants) in order to target specific information, the most common are; access to financial
based websites, ecommerce sites, and web-based mail sites.

Phishing-based Trojans – Keyloggers, Unique Variants

Password Stealing Malicious CodeUnique Applications
250
200

174 168150
100

184 192 197 180
165 180154142

215 212

182

July

Ju
neay
M

April

Ju
ly

Au
Se gustptem
berO
ctoberNovem
De bece rm
be
Ja r
nu
aryFe
bruaryM
arch500

Phishing-based Trojans – Keyloggers, Unique Websites Hosting Keyloggers

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Password Stealing Malicious Code URLs
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000

2945

2683
2157

1912
918 958 965 863 1044

2100

1678

1850

1100

July

April
M
ay
JuneJulyAu
Se gu
stptemb
O er
ctob
Nov eremDbeecem rbe
Ja rnuFe arybruaryMarch

500
0In July, Websense® Security Labs discovered a new malicious website, which distributed malicious code that installsa Trojan Horse on end-users' machines. This potentially occurs without user interaction.
The site appeared to be mirroring a World Cup 2006 Soccer website with the exception that they have a lead story
regarding the now infamous, Zinedine Zidane head butt incident from the World Cup final against Italy.
Upon visiting any of the pages on the site, end-users were potentially infected with a Trojan Horse downloader. This
Trojan Horse downloads additional payload code from the site. The site was using the underground "Web Attacker"
toolkit (discussed in an earlier alert http://www.websense.com/securitylabs/alerts/alert.php?AlertID=472).
The Web Attacker toolkit is sold on a Russian website and costs anywhere from $20 to $300. This toolkit allows users
to install code that exploits users based on their browser types. The installed code includes one of five different
variants, including exploits for old and new vulnerabilities.
This site was hosted in the United States.
Site screenshot:

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Phishing-based Trojans – Redirectors
Definition: Crimeware code which is designed with the intent of redirecting end-users network traffic to a location
where it was not intended to go to. This includes crimeware that changes hosts files and other DNS specificinformation, crimeware browser-helper objects that redirect users to fraudulent sites, and crimeware that may install a
network level driver or filter to redirect users to fraudulent locations. All of these must be installed with the intention ofcompromising information which could lead to identify theft or other credentials being taken with criminal intent.
Along with phishing-based keyloggers we are seeing large increases in traffic redirectors. In particular the highest
volume is in malicious code which simply modifies your DNS server settings or your hosts file to redirect either somespecific DNS lookups or all DNS lookups to a fraudulent DNS server. The fraudulent server replies with “good”
answers for most domains, however when they want to direct you to a fraudulent one, they simply modify their nameserver responses. This is particularly effective because the attackers can redirect any of the users requests at any
time and the end-users have very little indication that this is happening as they could be typing in the address on theirown and not following an email or Instant Messaging lure.

Phishing-based Trojans & Downloader’s Hosting Countries (by IP address)
The chart below represents a breakdown of the websites which were classified during April as hosting malicious codein the form of either a phishing-based keylogger or a Trojan downloader which downloads a keylogger.
The United States is still the top geographic location with 27.77%.
The rest of the breakdown was as follows; Russia 19.17%, Brazil 6.1%, China 5.98%, Korea 4.6%, Germany 3.74%,
Canada 3.24%, Portugal 3.11%, Italy 2.86%, Spain 2.74%.

Top 10 Phishing Based Keylogger and Trojan
Downloaders by Hosting Country
BrazilChina

Ko reaGermany
CanadaP o rtugal

RussiaItaly
Spain

United States

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org

Phishing Research Contributors

dMarkMonitor

PandaLabs

Websense Security Labs™

MarkMonitor is the global leader
in delivering comprehensive
online corporate identity
protection services, with a focus
on making the Internet safe foronline transactions.

PandaLabs is an international
network of research andtechnical support centersdevoted to protecting users
against malware.

Websense Security Labs mission
is to discover, investigate, andreport on advanced Internetthreats to protect employee
computing environments.

For media inquiries please contact Ronnie Manning at rmanning@websense.com or 858.320.9274 or Peter Cassidy,
APWG Secretary General at 617.669.1123.

About the Anti-Phishing Working GroupThe Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is an industry association focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraudthat result from the growing problem of phishing and email spoofing. The organization provides a forum to discussphishing issues, define the scope of the phishing problem in terms of hard and soft costs, and share information andbest practices for eliminating the problem. Where appropriate, the APWG will also look to share this information withlaw enforcement.
Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law enforcement community, andsolutions providers. There are more than 1500 companies and government agencies participating in the APWG andmore than 2400 members. Note that because phishing attacks and email fraud are sensitive subjects for manyorganizations that do business online, the APWG has a policy of maintaining the confidentiality of memberorganizations.
The website of the Anti-Phishing Working Group is http://www.antiphishing.org. It serves as a public and industry
resource for information about the problem of phishing and email fraud, including identification and promotion ofpragmatic technical solutions that can provide immediate protection and benefits against phishing attacks. The
analysis, forensics, and archival of phishing attacks to the website are currently powered by Tumbleweed
Communications' Message Protection Lab.
The APWG, a 501c6 tax-exempted corporation, was founded by Tumbleweed Communications and a number ofmember banks, financial services institutions, and e-commerce providers. It held its first meeting in November 2003 in
San Francisco and in June 2004 was incorporated as an independent corporation controlled by its steering committee,
its board and its executives.

Anti-Phishing Working Group
http://www.antiphishing.org ● info@antiphishing.org