UK bank hit by massive phishing attack

Customers of Barclays Bank have been alerted to a range of phishing emails designed to steal online banking details. 

Antivirus company Panda Software has identified 61 variants of spoofed emails targeting Barclays customers. 

Panda said that 64 per cent of the phishing messages it has detected in the past few hours were aimed at the UK bank. 

The rush of spoof emails has pushed the number of overall phishing attacks up by 30 per cent.

"The false emails are designed to appear as if they have been sent from Barclays' customer services, with the subject field chosen at random from a list of options," said a statement from Panda Software.

"Some of these options include 'Barclays bank official update', 'Barclays bank Security update' and 'Please Read or Verify your data with Barclays bank'. "

The message text, imitating Barclays' corporate image, informs users that the bank is upgrading its software and that they should go to a link in order to confirm their bank details.

Users who click on the link will see a form similar to those used by the bank, requesting their account number, credit card number or Pin.

Panda warned that the 61 different variants of the email make it very likely that some will bypass anti-spam filters.

The attack also shows signs of being coordinated, since it was initiated in several places at the same time in order to spread rapidly.

It uses at least five false internet addresses based in Korea to hinder attempts to close all of the phishing sites quickly.

"This is a sophisticated attack in comparison with those that we usually see, " said Luis Corrons, director of Panda Labs.

"The use of several domains to host spoofed web pages makes it more difficult to disable them. The emails are also far more authentic looking than the usual, often error-strewn, messages."

See also:

Two-thirds of phishing scams target single US bank

Fifth Third Bank heads August phishing list by a mile  13 Sep 2006

Bank of Ireland agrees to phishing refunds

Customers will get their money back after fake website scam  07 Sep 2006

SMS phishing attacks hit mobile users

Latest threat dubbed 'smishing'  05 Sep 2006

Virus levels soar in August

Percentage of phishing emails increases dramatically  04 Sep 2006

Huge botnet swamps UK firms with 8 million phishing emails

Zombie masters control 20,000 IP addresses  02 Aug 2006

2006 the 'year of cyber-crime'

SMEs are the most vulnerable, says report  17 Jul 2006

Phishers crack two-factor authentication

Next-generation attack spells doom for security system  13 Jul 2006

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