Risk: Informational
Phishing kits are on sale for as little as £16 ($30), arming would-be hackers with exploit codes that take advantage of new, or unknown, vulnerabilities. Not all kits are this cheap, with most ranging from $30 to $3000, depending on their ability to sidestep detection, sophistication and ease of use.
One problem with these new kits is that they normally go undetected by anti-virus programs, as the kit makers publish and test against signature detection.
Dan Hubbard, a representative of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, said: "[Phishing kits] have been around for years but the volume is one of the big changes. The kits available are better designed. A lot of the 'traditional' criminals are good at getting dollars back for the [stolen] credentials. You also have your security programmer guy, who probably isn't as good at monetising these assets. The two working together make a scary combination."