OpenDNS Announces PhishTank Annual Report Findings; U.S. Telecom Providers Hosting More Phishes than Those in Any Other Country

October 9, 2007; 06:46 AM
San Francisco (PRWEB) October 9, 2007 -- OpenDNS, the award-winning DNS provider that makes the Internet safer, faster, smarter and more reliable, today announced findings from analysis of one full year of PhishTank statistics. Operated by OpenDNS, PhishTank is the only collaborative clearinghouse of phishing data, openly sharing timely phishing information with Yahoo! Mail, the Mozilla Foundation and other software developers looking to incorporate anti-phishing elements in their tools. OpenDNS is the world's largest, fastest-growing DNS provider.

The PhishTank Annual Report looks at the more than 300,000 unique suspected phishing scams submitted to PhishTank over the course of twelve months. This equates to approximately one unique phishing scam launched every two minutes.

United States Hosts Most Phishes

Among key findings is the fact that the United States leads the world in number of phishing sites hosted. Excepting only one month, November 2006, when South Korea took the lead, telecom providers in the United States hosted more phishes than network providers in any other country. While percentages varied, one month the percentage of phishes hosted in the United States reached a high of 43 percent.

Top U.S. network providers hosting phishes, followed by number of phishes:

1. SBC - 53,666           
2. Comcast - 28,016           
3. Roadrunner - 25,925           
4. Charter - 12,544           
5. Internet Services - 10,332        
6. Inktomi Corporation - 9,293
7. XO Communications - 8,511
8. Bresnan Communications - 8,408
9. Advanced Internet Technologies - 8,274
10. Park Region Mutual Telephone Co. - 7,566   

"This finding puts to rest the common misconception that foreign countries are wholly responsible for the originating of phishing scams," said OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch. "Phishing is more of a United States problem than we're led to believe."

Phishers Getting Craftier

PhishTank saw a fluctuation in the number of suspected phishing scams submitted from month to month, but overall numbers indicate phishing is on the rise. For example, from January 2007 to April 2007 PhishTank noted a marked increase of 254 percent in the number of suspected phishing scams reported.

In addition, phishing scammers are becoming increasingly crafty, leveraging new and different brands in their attempts. So far 2007 has seen the addition of non-financial institutions like Amazon.com, WalMart and CareerBuilder.com, among others, to the list of targeted brands used in phishes submitted to PhishTank. Though the PhishTank Annual Report found an ever-increasing list of spoofed brands to be increasingly wider-ranging, the most used brands remained consistent throughout the entire 12-month span. PayPal and eBay hold the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, with a 25,000-phish difference separating eBay from No. 3, Barclays Bank.

Other key findings include:

• 18 percent of all verified phishing Web sites were hosted on just three IP addresses.
• Web sites ending in ".cn" - the Top Level Domain (TLD) assigned to China - account for four of the top five Web sites with the most valid phishes.

About OpenDNS:
OpenDNS makes the Internet safer, faster, smarter and more reliable. Based in San Francisco, the company operates a large distributed network that powers a new kind of recursive DNS (Domain Name System) service that provides all Internet users increased security, reliability and performance. OpenDNS is thoroughly committed to building and operating the best DNS platform in the world and to improving the Internet. For more information about OpenDNS, please visit: http://www.opendns.com.