Microsoft charts phishing success

Every year approximately 0.4 percent of users of the internet divulge personal information in phishing scams, according to research from Microsoft.

The research could not determine on average how much money victims that fell prey to phishing scams lost, reports PC World. Microsoft presented the research at the recent Anti-Phishing Work Group summit in Pittsburgh. Researchers Cormac Herley and Dinei Florencio co-wrote a paper on the findings. The software giant monitored 500,000 internet users who had downloaded Phish Detective and tracked password reuse among them.

Phish Detective comes with the Windows Live OneCare Advisor for the Windows Live Toolbar. Mr Herley told PC World: "The problem with phishing is it's easy to get an accurate estimate of people who are going to vote one way or the other, but when you're trying to estimate something that's rare it gets hard." Meanwhile, the number of phishing attacks increased worryingly during September, according to recent research from MessageLabs Intelligence.