The latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group for 8-05 contains a glimmer of hope but a closer look at the overall trends since 10-04 reveals increasingly negative trends for the banking industry. While the average number of days online for the phishing scams fell from 5.9 days to 5.5 days (glimmer of hope), the number of active phishing sites each month has increased 360% from 1,142 sites during 10/04 to 5,259 sites during 8/05, the total time online for active phishing sites has increased 296% from 7,309 days during 10/04 by 21,616 extra days to 28,925 days during 8/05, the use of domain names in web addresses has increased 145% from 20% in 10/04 to 49% in 8/05 thus increasing the sophistication of the phishing sites designed to defraud consumers and over 80% of the phishing attacks have hit the financial sector with smaller banks being targeted. Supporting details for these trends are available in the pdf file for "Corporate Identity Fraud" (see below). Phishing is part of a larger problem we call corporate identity fraud. Corporate identity fraud is the criminal use of corporate trademarks in the form of domain names and related fake web sites and email addresses that are registered and used by cyber criminals to deceive, divert and, in the worst case, defraud consumers with phishing scams. These are designed to gain unlawful or fraudulent access to financial information of individuals. The Online Brand Rating™ is an independent valuation that measures exposure to online corporate identity fraud, including phishing, for new and established brands based on federal and state regulations and related best business practices, including the FDIC's Financial Institution Letter 64-2005, dated 7-18-05. This directs FDIC-insured institutions to conduct periodic risk assessments and report the findings on domain name risks to the board of directors. Preventing fraudulent access to financial information through fake web sites and related phishing cases is addressed by a series of federal bank standards. These direct banks to have matching domain names and trademarks for each brand and country of operation along with a system to prevent, detect, and report the fraudulent use of their corporate assets, including domain names, by cyber criminals. Enacting these standards reduces exposure to corporate identity fraud and leads, in the strongest case, to an Online Brand Rating of "A". Exposure to corporate identity fraud is reflected in Online Brand Ratings that range from A to F20, where F20 signifies a very high degree of exposure. The ratings are designed to help Audit and Technology Committees, CxO's, Privacy Officers, Accountants, Compliance Officers, Trademark attorneys, lenders, investors and consumers understand and assess a trademark portfolio's exposure to corporate identity fraud. The Online Brand Ratings are based on public information relating to corporate trademarks and due diligence based on the following components (pdf files) of the Online Brand Audit.
Online Brand Ratings
Corporate Identity Fraud: Definitions (pdf file, 18 pages, 1.2mb)
Corporate Governance	Regulations	Prevent	Detect	Audit
TM Standards Committee	Report	Analyze	Correct	Disclose

The web address for this report is www.OnlineBrandRating.com.

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