Mark's Notebook

Online Dangers Likely to Continue Growing in 2005

Washington Post

By Brian Krebs, Robert MacMillan and David McGuire

Internet users witnessed yet another wave of spam, worms, viruses and other online attacks in 2004, and experts predict the online world will grow even more dangerous in 2005.

One of the most severe dangers to Internet users in 2004 was "phishing," a kind of fraud in which thieves design Web sites that pretend to represent real companies like Citibank or PayPal. They send cleverly disguised e-mail messages often telling people that their accounts will be suspended unless they submit information such as their credit card and bank routing numbers by clicking on a link provided in the message. That information often winds up being used by international hacker networks, and many people's credit subsequently has been damaged or ruined.

Next year promises renewed attempts to fight spam. Much junk e-mail still contains pitches for impotence remedies, investment schemes and other too-good-to-be-true offers that range from the hilarious to the vulgar, but an increasing amount contains worms, viruses and fraud schemes.

In 2004, just 12 percent of all e-mail on the Internet was legitimate, according to Redwood, Calif.-based e-mail filtering company Postini. The company, which quarantines up to 133 million spam messages for its customers each day, predicted that that number would shrink to 8 percent in 2005.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4005-2004Dec16.html

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Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008