Phishing for Identities

: The Latest Threat to Financial Institutions & Their Customers

Phishing becomes the latest threat to financial institutions exasperating the ills of identity theft and eroding consumer trust.

Over the past few years, financial institutions have made strides towards fighting identity theft. Many are taking the necessary steps to require and authenticate customer information and intentions. They have also encouraged their customers to protect their log-in information and change their passwords frequently. However, many of these tactics have been negated by the many consumers falling victim to the recent surge in phishing attacks.

Phishing has become the latest threat to financial institutions. This form of fraud is designed to exploit customer information and inadvertently wreak havoc on the systems and reputations of these firms. In short, phishing is a way of extracting personal information from consumers and corporations through the use of imposter emails and Web sites. Once the information is obtained, it may be used to commit identity theft, card fraud, or many other forms of bank fraud. Thus far in 2004, more than 450 phishing attacks have been made against Internet service providers (ISPs), retailers, financial institutions and other industries.

In a new report, " : The Latest Threat to Financial Institutions & Their Customers," Celent examines the latest wave of fraud flooding the inboxes of millions of consumers, as well as the potential impact to financial institutions. Recommendations are also provided to assist financial institutions in tackling this problem.

"Phishing has become the latest bout of fraud for many financial institutions. This fraud is causing many financial institutions around the world to step up their measures to not only protect their customers, but their employees from divulging confidential information they shouldnt," commented Ariana-Michele Moore, an analyst in Celents retail banking practice and author of the report.

The report is aimed at helping fraud managers and IT executives understand this latest threat and how the steps and solutions they may deploy to reduce the potential impact.

A for this 31-page report is available online.

of Celent Communications' Retail Banking and Retail Securities & Investments research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.