Thursday, October 8, 2009

Largest Phishing Case Ever

The FBI has announced that 52 people have been charged in a major phishing case that spanned several continents and took over two years to complete. Investigators say that "Operation Phish Phry" demonstrates the growing complexity and sophistication of international crime rings in planning and executing cyberfraud.

Phishing has been a major means of defrauding innocent people for several years now. It causes major difficulties for system admmininistrators, who have some responsibility to try to protect their users from falling victim to phishing scams. However, there is only so much they can do, not only because the volume of phishing messages is large and the sophistication is growing but also because in the end the success of a phishing expedition depends to some extent on the gullibility of the phishing message recipients. More on Operation Phish Phry at this site.

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