Behind Phishing: An Examination of Phisher Modi Operandi

Phishing costs Internet users billions of dollars a year. Using various data sets collected in real-time, this paper analyzes various aspects of phisher modi operandi. The authors examine the anatomy of phishing URLs and domains, registration of phishing domains and time to activation, and the machines used to host the phishing sites. The findings can be used as heuristics in filtering phishing-related emails and in identifying suspicious domain registrations. According to a recent Gartner survey, 3.6 million U.S. adults lost a total of 3.2 billion dollars due to phishing in 2007. The survey projects that these numbers will continue to increase in the coming years because phishing is a lucrative business for the perpetrators.