What is this "phishing" all about - and why is it in the news almost every day?

Apparently, the UK already has an Anti-Phishing Working Group, which is an industry body that provides information on phishing and e-mail fraud.

In July alone this body reported over 1,900 unique phishing attacks, representing an increase of 19 per cent on the previous month.

If you use e-mail, there is a good chance that you may have already unknowingly come across phishing.

The best and easiest example is that it is a spoof e-mail that appears to come from a large, trusted organisation such as a bank or an e-commerce site.

The e-mails are designed to dupe you into giving out get certain private information that fraudsters could use to get access to your finance.

The spoof e-mail may also direct you to a fraudulent website that appears to come from one of your trusted financial organisations in an attempt to get you to divulge your credit card and/or you're online banking passwords.

One recent example is where many Virgin credit card customers have been targeted, being threatened with cancellation of their credit cards if they do not re-enter their details.

The e-mail directs them to a link to a third-party website - convincingly designed to mimic the Virgin Money site.

Phishing is a serious threat - both to you as an individual, and also the business you work for.

If a large number of employees are accessing their bank details online, this offers potentially huge spending power for hackers.

It could also compromise the company's finances and confidential information.

But how do we stop phishing?

For business, you need your company to enforce an internet usage policy that prevents unauthorised applications from launching on the employee desktop.

Individuals should be more vigilant and contact your trusted organisation to get them to investigate any strange e-mail in your inbox.

* Michael McMeekin is managing director of Wisdom IT. Log on to www.wisdomit.co.uk

Published: 04/10/2005