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More Employees Vulnerable to Phishing, Study Finds

Spammers and “phishers” are infiltrating computer systems of more businesses than ever as their methods of luring Internet users get more sophisticated, according to a recent survey done for Websense, Inc., the San Diego maker of Internet filtering software.

A troubling 82 percent of information technology decision-makers surveyed said employees at their companies have received phishing attacks via e-mail or instant messaging. But only 4 percent of the employees surveyed admitted they have actually “fallen for a phish.”

Phishing describes the sending of e-mail that requests receivers to click a hyperlink to another site that has been established to steal vital personal and financial data from curious recipients.

“Phishers are becoming more sophisticated in their deception techniques to lure employees to spoofed Web sites, as most employees cannot determine which is a valid site and which is a fake,” said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and technology research for Websense. “By simply clicking on a phishing URL, the site can install spyware, such as a malicious keylogger, on the employee’s computer which has the ability to capture data such as network passwords or Social Security numbers without their knowledge.”

In the company’s recent survey, only a third of employees even heard of the phishing phenomenon. The survey was taken in February of 354 IT decision-makers, and in late February-March of 500 employees, who work at organizations with at least 100 employees.

While 60 percent of IT managers said their companies block executable programs transmitted through e-mail, only 14 percent said they block hyperlinks that can transmit an employee’s browser to sites that may infect that employee’s PC, and eventually, an entire network, the survey stated.

Mike Allen

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