Thanks to Shravan Shashikant and the Norton Confidential Online team for providing the data, and to Christopher Mendes for compiling it.

Does phish taste better than spam? Yes, perhaps it does. Allow me to explain.

The recent past has been one of the most volatile financial periods in history. World economies have reached a very critical stage—sovereign debt crises, bailouts, loan defaulters causing banks to shiver, sales shrinkages causing trade surplus, and bankruptcies. Add to all of this the fears of a double-dip economic recession theory making the rounds and it looks like a really dreadful picture.

But how does this affect the consumer from the point of view of email security? The consumer is the fulcrum point, the hinge of the story! All these negatives hits consumer spending in a very big way. The first wave of recession had definitely dented consumer confidence, and with the “Double Dip” theory lurking on the horizon it...

Thanks to Amit Kulkarni for his contributions to this blog.

Since its launch, the Apple iPhone has been on the wish lists of most consumers.  The iPhone 4 has already made an impression in the marketplace, so it is obvious that spammers will make the best of this opportunity.  Symantec observed spam tactics just before the release of iPhone 4 and is expecting an even greater spam volume when iPhone 5 is released to the market.

The next generation of iPhone is expected to hit the market in September and spammers don’t want people to wait until the official release. Below is a sample of spammer hype campaigning to lure people into their trap. As usual, the bait is a survey one has to complete to be eligible to own “this coveted piece of art!”

 
When...

Symantec keeps track of the brands targeted by phishing and monitors trends in the countries in which the brand’s parent company is based. Over the past couple of months, phishing sites have been increasingly targeting Brazilian brands. In May and June, the number of phishing sites on Brazilian brands made up about 5 percent of all phishing sites. This is an increase of nearly three times that of the previous month. The phishing Web pages were in Brazilian Portuguese. The most targeted brand in these phishing sites was a social networking site.

• The majority of the phishing on Brazilian brands, approximately 58 percent, used IP domains (e.g., domains such as hxxp://255.255.255.255). 
• Twelve Web-hosting sites were used to host 4 percent of the phishing sites on Brazilian brands.
• There were several banks attacked in phishing and...

Surveys are a great window into people’s minds, especially when they can illuminate contrasting, and even contradictory, behaviors in the same group. Results from the Symantec Online Internet Safety Survey have done just that. The most compelling finding—that respondents frequently proceed with online transactions they know might be insecure—inspired me to ask not just, “What are they thinking?” but “What are they thinking?!?”

The survey’s focus must be on many people’s minds, as we’ve had an extraordinary response: 301 people in just a few days! My initial impressions of the results are below. Feel free to share your comments and questions on the original edition of this post.
 

Findings

Risky behavior remains common despite respondents knowing better

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