Phishing Article Draft – Moniker.com

How Much Can Phishing Identity Theft Cost Your Business

Last year, over 55% of the identity theft complaints made to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) were related to Internet fraud. Criminals have gone high tech by using web technology to become a “sheep in wolf’s clothing” by masking themselves as legitimate businesses and stealing consumers’ identities. Known as phishing, this type of identity theft is a serious crime that affects consumers and businesses alike.

How does phishing work? The identity thief will create a bogus email that on the surface will appear to come from a legitimate business, financial institution, or government agency, using masking to falsify the origin of the email. The identity thief will insert false statements to create a sense of urgency with a corresponding link so the consumer can go and “fix” the problem. These links drive these consumers to a fake site that will mirror the legitimate company’s web site as close as possible. Sometimes, these thieves even cut and paste content from the legitimate site…making it very hard to detect on the surface that it’s a phony. This phishing web site will have a form for the consumer to fill out or install a keystroke program that the identity thief can monitor remotely, making it easy for the identity thief to grab a consumer’s personal information.

Consumers will spend approximately $500 per identity theft issue, clearing up an average of $10,000 of unauthorized charges. Luckily, these phishing attacks will only affect a limited group of online consumers, making this type of spam more of a nuisance than anything else. Most credit card companies offer some type the fraud protection on their credit cards that will cover the majority of the losses.

The real victims of phishing are the businesses being targeted by these identity thieves. According to CipherTrust, leading security provider that’s trusted by more than 30% of the Fortune 100 companies, states that if your organization’s trademarks or brand are used in phishing attacks, the cost to your company’s brand is estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000. Additionally, many large companies are spending $200,000 and $1 million annually to fight phishing. Merchants are investing in strong Web site authentication, mail server authentication and digitally signed e-mail with both gateway and desktop verification. Security experts estimate that the authentication software used to protect their emails against phishing could end up costing the company between $20 and $100 per e-mail user. Suddenly, email becomes much more expensive for businesses…driving up the cost for these companies to do business and ultimately leaving the burden on the consumers’ shoulders.

Security. Safety. Trust. Anything that undermines those issues can't be good…making phishing a serious threat to the online marketplace. Government and non-profit agencies, like the FTC and Anti- Phishing Working Group, are trying to educate the consumer on phishing and how to avoid becoming a victim. However, there is only so much they can do. As a business with an investment in your online customer base, there are things you can do to help your customers avoid phishing scams:

Communicate – Advise your customers on your emailing and communication practices.
Educate – Provides resources about phishing and educate your customers on how to protect themselves.
Secure – Review your existing security protocols on email and secure your emails.

The best defense is making sure all your company emails are sent out using a secure socket layer, or SSL, that certificates for e-mail authentication using a third party company like Truste (www.truste.com). Then advise your customer base of your email practices and send them timely updates on any changes. The better you streamline your communication, the more secure your system and less vulnerable from identity theft.

Lastly, make sure that your company owns all the possible extensions attached to your company’s domain name. If you own ‘mycompany.com’, make sure you also own ‘mycompany.net’, ‘mycompany.org’, ‘ mycompany.us ’, etc. Many identity thieves will purchase a lesser used extension and create a phishing site with a domain that should be owned by your business. So close the back doors and register all your company’s domain name extensions !

Remember, if you don’t protect your customers from phishing, your customers may leave to find another business that will. So secure your business against identity thieves…because the alternative can cost your business much, much more.

Kathryn Katz is the SEO Strategist for Moniker.com with an extensive background in search engine marketing and web copywriting. She got her start doing Internet technical support for AT&T and Bellsouth in both their residential and commercial divisions. Ms. Katz has been published in leading SEO publications including High Rankings.com.

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