The Story Of "Phishermen and the Net"

Websites and emails that ‘phish' for personal information have not come down though widely-used browsers including Internet Explorer and Firefox have ‘antiphishing' features now. The browsers warn Net users about sites which are blacklisted but phishers have now found a way to circumvent this, says Mr David Jevans, chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Clever phishers are now registering new domains for each of their adventures. By the time the browsers blacklist them, they would have already cheated many users. Then they would register another domain. Jevans points out that phishing domains rose from about 11,000 last year to more than 37,000 by May this year. According to researchers of Cambridge University, each phishing site is able to attract and cheat 30 users in a few hours before it is blacklisted. This is a good business. The only long-term solution is authentication of each site, which is easier said than done.