Banks, Law Agencies Team Up To Fight Phishing
Law enforcement agencies and a group of businesses have pooled their resources to form an information-sharing operation that is specifically designed to combat phishing. Dubbed Digital PhishNet, the database would serve as a common information repository for law enforcement and industry.
As part of the program, investigators from participating companies will key phishing-related information into a database at the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, where analysts from the FBI will identify patterns and pass that information along to agents.
Numbered among the venture’s corporate sponsors are Microsoft, America Online, Lycos, EarthLink, Network Solutions, and VeriSign. The FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, the Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and nine unnamed U.S. banks are also supporters.
Similar projects have been launched in the last year, including a joint venture between MasterCard International and digital-fraud-detection firm NameProtect, and a separate project involving ABN Amro, AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, Charles Schwab, and a host of other companies.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from InformationWeek (12/09/04); Claburn, Thomas .
