Phishing attacks 'increase in September'

The number of phishing and virus attacks has increased substantially this month, according to recent research.

There has been a surge in phishing activity that has brought it to levels last seen in 2006, according to a report released by MessageLabs Intelligence. Currently there is a virus threat in one in every 48 emails sent, the report stated, and the management level at companies is being increasingly threatened. The report stated: "Virus levels reached levels last observed more than 18 months ago. Phishing levels have never before reached levels experienced this month.

"The increased availability of phishing kits and aggressive phishing techniques such botnet or 'rock' phishing mean that the threat from these types of attack has been able to increase dramatically." Stock spam also rose steeply in September, according to MessageLabs, being sent out in volumes that could "easily overwhelm a spam filtering appliance".