Windows 7: Cyber-squatting and phishing attacks on the rise

A study carried out by brand specialist MarkMonitor has reported that abuse of the World's top brands, through practices such as cyber-squatting and phishing, is rising.



The most common form of abuse is still cyber-squatting, where someone registers a domain name with the aim of selling it on at a later date, which rose by 18% in 2008 with 1,722,133 incidents reported.

However, phishing attacks, where website replicates another to try and acquire a person's private information, rose a massive 122% in the second half of 2008. Attacks on financial services rose 51% within the same period.