“Phishing” Attempts Rise in 2005

There are a growing number of complaints that involve some form of phishing or spoofing as a means to convince individuals to provide personal or financial information on the Internet. The Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) said on June 8 that last month, 97 complaints were reported involving phishing, an increase of 47 percent compared to April. In addition, it added that the number of cases involving phishing reported from the beginning of this year to May reached 352, way over 200, the figure reported last year.

Phishing is a combination word of private data and fishing, referring to when perpetrators tempt Internet users and steal personal information from them as if they were catching fish. The perpetrators tempt Net users to visit websites disguised as those of financial institutions and e-commerce, and get access to their credit card numbers or pin numbers as they are entered in.

Meanwhile, the KISA advised Net users to be cautious of phishing as there are a higher number of suspected phishing cases than statistically reported as the number of reported cases is on the rise. The number of complaints rose from 61 in January, 64 in February, 64 in March, and 66 in April to 95 in May.

Sang HoonKim sanhkim@donga.com