Phishing Up 81%, Tied to Organized Crime
According to this Reuters story, phishing — the use of email to pose as someone's bank or other trusted institution in order to trick people into divulging their passwords or other sensitive information — is on the rise, with the first six months of 2006 seeing 81% more unique phishing messages than the last six months of 2005. A researcher quoted in the article states that organized crime has become very interested in phishing.