Phishing Up By 226 Percent

Phishing is up dramatically over the last two months according to data released Thursday by computer maker IBM and message filtering firm Postini.

IBM's monthly security report said that phishing jumped 226 percent in May over the previous month to record an all-time high that beat out the earlier record in January of this year.

The surge continued into and through June, said Redwood City, Calif.-based Postini in its own malicious code accounting, with phishing attacks climbing 71 percent over May's numbers.

"Phishing attempts will continue to plague enterprise users for the foreseeable future," opined Andrew Lochart, senior director of marketing at Postini, in a statement.

News of most other malware categories was almost as dismal. IBM, for instance, tallied a 33 increase during May in the number of e-mails carrying viruses or worms.

The good news? Spam remained flat at around 69 percent of all e-mail for May, said IBM, the third month in a row of little or no growth in junk mail.