June 15, 2005
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As electronic commerce increases on the Web, so does the sophistication of technology used by scam artists, with a new tactic called "pharming" being the most dangerous, a security firm said Tuesday.
By Staff Writer
In the last year, the number of e-commerce transactions conducted by more than 135,000 online shoppers tracked by Verisign Inc. increased 31%. In addition, the amount each person spent rose on average of 4% in the first quarter to $150 from $144 in the fourth quarter of last year.
At the same time, con artists, called "phishers," who have used bogus emails to lure recipients to a fake online banking or merchant site to steal passwords and personal information are increasingly switching to pharming, which subverts some part of the Internet infrastructure.
With pharming, malicious code is often placed on vulnerable domain name systems, which then direct traffic to fraudulent websites. A DNS takes the domain name typed into a browser and uses it to locate the site on the Internet.
On March 16, for example, Verisign detected an apparent pharming attack that registered a 300% increase in probes of DNS computer servers. The apparent attack coincided with users of certain websites being redirected to a site that distributed spyware and adware.
Driving the push for more automated techniques to rip off consumers is the continued growth in online commerce. Verisign Payment Services, which the company says represents 37% of e-commerce in North America, reached a record 71.29 million transactions in the first quarter with a total value of $10.69 billion.
Also during the quarter, 84.9% of attempted fraudulent transactions originated from computers in the United States. Canada was second with 5.2%, followed by Britain, 1.1%; Australia and Germany, 0.9%; and Japan, 0.7%.
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