Rise in phishing attacks

According to Murali Venkatesan, product specialist, Sify, the risks are significantly higher in a net-connected world where users not only send personal e-mail, but go on to do e-tailing and venture into online banking.

“It has all to do with one’s perception of how much risk is involved in an electronic interaction. Security safeguards are put into place based on the level of risk perceived”, says Mr Venkatesan, adding that the Indian corporate world was increasingly becoming aware of the pitfalls associated with hacking and phishing.
The increased incidence of phishing – whereby fraudsters acquire sensitive information by masquerading as an authentic entity – has upped the practice of corporates opting for website authentication certificates. Some of these products make the authentication process easier for the common user by giving a green colour coding to the URL band when the user types a domain address, to confirm that the site is a genuine one.

One of the more recent authentication certificates, the extended validation secure sockets layer (EVSSL) certificate, validates the authenticity of an organization through published authentic databases like that provided by the Registrar of Companies before issuing the authentication certifcate.

Mr Venkatesan said a point of serious concern for coporates in recent times was that phishing attacks had turned serious, and is no more done for fun. According to him, phishing is now done with the specific purpose of economic gain, making it a serious threat to net users.

He said EVSSL authentication made more sense for consumer-facing companies, where consumers interface with the company website and make transactions. These companies would primarily include banking, financial services, insurance and utilities, besides a range of service sector companies from hotels to airlines.