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2005-10-06
AOL Announces Aggressive New Steps to Combat Phishing, Identity Theft
DULLES, Va., Oct 05, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- America Online, Inc. (TWX):
Behind-the-Scenes Defenses Include Web Crawling, Checking New Domain
Names, Analyzing Suspicious URLs, Blocking Access to Phishing Sites,
Removing Sites
Announces New and Expanded Partnerships with Anti-Phishing Companies
MarkMonitor, Cyveillance, Cyota
AOL Now Blocking Roughly 8 Million Phishing Attempts Per Day
America Online today announced a range of aggressive new steps to help protect AOL members from "phishing" attacks -- the use of fraudulent e-mail and fake web sites to gather sensitive personal information from users. New partnerships with leading anti-phishing companies MarkMonitor and Cyveillance, and an expanded agreement with existing partner Cyota, now offer AOL members multiple layers of invisible protection against phishing attacks. Through those defenses, AOL announced it is now blocking roughly eight million phishing attempts against its members each day.
Among the strategies that AOL is now employing as a result of the new and expanded partnerships with those companies:
-- Early warning systems that check newly-registered domains to see if they mimic legitimate site names, indicating they may be used for phishing.
-- Web crawling systems that constantly explore the Web looking for suspicious sites that imitate the text or appearance of real sites.
-- URL analysis that checks more than a million suspicious URLs referred by AOL members each day to determine if they are phishing sites.
-- Take down efforts that work with system administrators and web hosting providers worldwide to remove known phishing sites from the Web.
-- Technical countermeasures that target fraudulent sites to help reduce the risk of personal information being gathered on those sites.
-- Round-the-clock blocking of member access to newly discovered phishing sites by AOL's security and mail operations teams.
This effort comes on top of AOL's existing efforts to protect members from phishing attacks by blocking millions of e-mails each day that contain links to known phishing sites before they reach a member's mailbox, as well as blocking member access to known phishing sites through the AOL (R) client.
"The only difference between a phisher and a mugger is that a phisher uses a keyboard and not a gun," said Tatiana Platt, AOL Senior Vice President and Chief Trust Officer. "Phishing and identity theft crimes cost consumers billions of dollars each year, and we will do everything in our power to protect our members from the online criminals who would prey on them. We are proud to be teaming up with the world's best cyber security firms to add these extra layers of protection for our members."
To help identify potential phishing sites, AOL uses member feedback through the millions of e-mails referred via the "Report Spam" button, as well as input from a range of other internal and external sources. When a phishing site is identified, AOL works to block incoming e-mails containing the URL to that site, as well as limiting access to the site through the AOL software. In addition to fraudulent web sites that attempt to spoof pages of the AOL (R) service, AOL also works to protect members from scam sites that imitate other legitimate companies such as banks, credit card issuers, online auctions, and online payment facilitators.
"We are pleased to partner with AOL to make the Internet safer for consumers," said Mark Shull, CEO of MarkMonitor. "This is a comprehensive effort, which leverages MarkMonitor's strong identity-based fraud detection and response capabilities, as well as our deep experience in identity protection for corporations. As a result of this aggressive program, millions of AOL customers can feel more secure and confident in accessing the Internet for the purposes it was intended."
"Phishing is one of the fastest growing forms of online crime and fraudulent destination sites cannot be detected or combated using traditional security tools. We are pleased to partner with AOL to provide robust detection and protection services that add a solid layer of defense for its members," said Panos Anastassiadis, CEO of Cyveillance. "Cyveillance is dedicated to developing technology solutions to protect our customers against increasingly sophisticated threats and will continue to expand our technology to protect against the myriad of new dangers on the Internet."
"Over the past six years Cyota has developed an array of online fraud and authentication solutions deployed today by seven of the top ten banks in the country," said Amir Orad, Executive Vice President at Cyota. "We are excited to take our AOL partnership to the next level as part of our ongoing battle against evolving online threats. Our 24x7 Anti Fraud Command Center works on behalf of AOL and over 40 large bank clients to shut down phishing sites, and mitigate the damages of these online attacks."
In addition to the expanded efforts announced today, AOL has deployed a range of other tools and strategies - both visible and behind-the-scenes - to help protect AOL members from phishing scams. Among them:
-- AOL Official Mail: AOL is the only ISP to use special markings that cannot be copied as a way to identify official AOL company mail for members.
-- Spam Blocking: Our aggressive efforts to block spam also protect members from millions of phishing attempts, which typically are done via mass e-mail attacks.
-- AOL Money Alerts: Members can choose to receive alerts about unusual account activity on their registered bank accounts or credit cards, offering an early warning system of possible identity theft.
-- Account Lockdowns: AOL continuously monitors its network for potentially compromised accounts. If discovered, AOL blocks access, and an AOL member services representative helps the member secure their account.
-- Member Education: AOL notifies members in every email and IM window that AOL staff will never ask for their password or billing information. And they can access tips about scams at AOL Keyword: Phishing.
-- Disabling Links in E-mail: AOL automatically disables links to Web pages in e-mails from unknown senders to prevent members from accidentally clicking on a phishing scam or virus. (The member can choose to activate those links after reviewing the mail).
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc (TWX). Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.
About MarkMonitor
MarkMonitor is the global leader in delivering comprehensive online corporate identity protection services, with a focus on making the Internet safe for online transactions. MarkMonitor's integrated Brand and Fraud Protection platform provides full life-cycle management, including early warning, real-time detection, and investigation and response, to a wide and growing list of identity-based online security problems faced by corporations today. These solutions are enabled by a comprehensive brand and fraud intelligence network that monitors for inappropriate or fraudulent use of a corporate name or identity anywhere in the Internet, including web sites, search engines, major email systems, domain name systems, registries, message boards, blogs and chat rooms. For more on MarkMonitor, please refer to www.markmonitor.com.
About Cyveillance
Cyveillance provides online risk monitoring and management solutions to Global 2000 organizations. The company comprehensively monitors the Internet using patented technology to deliver early warning of risks to information, infrastructure and individuals. Armed with this actionable intelligence and Cyveillance's immediate corrective response capability, chief security officers can proactively protect their company's reputation, revenues and customer trust. Cyveillance counts over half of the Fortune 50 and three quarters of the top Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, pharmaceutical, energy, and technology industries as clients.
About Cyota
Cyota, Inc. is the leading provider of online security and anti-fraud solutions for financial institutions. Cyota's solutions include fraud reduction tools for e-commerce and online banking as well as anti-phishing services. Cyota operates in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with systems in use by thousands of global financial institutions, including eight of the world's top 12 banks. Over 430 million accountholders are protected by Cyota's systems. Founded in 1999, Cyota is headquartered in New York with offices worldwide. For more information please visit www.cyota.com
SOURCE: America Online, Inc.
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