Risk: Informational
Phishing websites are growing in popularity. At the end of 2005, there were over 7000 unique phishing websites, most of which are run by established groups of criminals.
The international police organisation Interpol has recommended that international legislation be introduced to effectively deal with cybercriminals. Interpol has identified the need to be able to pass evidence from country to country and says that the current legislations in place do not facilitate this. Bernhard Oputal, Interpol's Crime Intelligence Officer, says: "With phishing and pharming, new technologies are being dealt with by old laws. We need an integrated legal framework to exchange data. A lot of legislation doesn't consider a data stream as evidence, because the evidence is hidden behind 0s and 1s. We have to rethink the legislative framework."
Microsoft has recently announced that it is to take legal action against suspected cybercriminals who are behind phishing websites. At the end of March this year, 53 cases had been filed against cybercriminals in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; a total of 100 will have been filed by June, seven of which emanate from the UK. In the US, Microsoft has already successfully filed cases against 117 phishing suspects and successfully closed over 4700 phishing websites.