Less phish, more meat? Malweb proving to be more efficient than phishing scams.

In a somewhat below-the-radar report, the anti-phishing working group (APWG) Q1 report is for the first time in its report showing a decrease in the number of phishing reports towards the end of the quarter.

In a startling (although expected) contrast – reports on crimeware, malware, Trojans and other malicious code (all delivered by Malweb!) is on the rise as the attack vector that uses Malweb is proving to be the most efficient ROI-wise.

Our view on this – obvious!. Phishing is a one-off that targets a single institution. It may be efficient for a short time, as these sites are being detected and brought down rather quickly. Malweb on the other hand is a long term investment. It brings in the ability to install more persistent rootkit/Trojan on the victim’s system, which would provide a more configurable platform for financial fraud than a phishing scam would.

The report is available at http://apwg.org/reports/apwg_report_Q1_2008.pdf.