The Anti-Phishing Working Group recently reported that the number of unique phishing sites nearly tripled between last March and April. April's total unique phishing site count was 55,643, up from 20,841 in March. Further, compared to April 2006, this represents an increase of more than five times (11,121 in 2006 versus 55,643 in 2007).

Phishing Web sites are social engineering attacks meant to trick visitors into divulging information such as user names, passwords, and account numbers. The main force driving this dramatic spike is the exponential increase in the number of phishing sub-domains. Specifically, the latest development in phishing attacks is the creation of lots of sub-domains so that, rather than having just one phishing site, these fraudsters will have numerous sub-domains under the main phishing domain which helps them elude detection. In the event one or more phishing sites are detected and shut down, more remain online to threaten consumers. Consumers without means to authenticate these sites often fall prey to the scheme and have their financial and personal information stolen.

"These statistics are staggering, and these are just the reported phishing statistics," said Melih Abdulhayoglu, president and CEO of Comodo. "The phishers are becoming increasingly savvy, having essentially nothing to lose and everything to gain. Authentication technology is the best and only line of defense against these attacks, with EV SSL certificates leading the pack."

Comodo's EV SSL certificates take the trusted technology of traditional SSL certificates and add an additional layer of visual protection. EV SSL certificates contains important information as to the identity of the site owner and newer Web browsers, such as Windows IE 7, employ technology that turns the address bar green, presenting the verified identity information contained in the certificate to the user. This extra authentication enables visitors to verify the site's owner as well as the Certification Authority (CA) that issued the certificate, proving that it is a real business and not a fake or phishing site. Thus, EV SSL certificates provide users with even more confidence because they now know with whom they are conducting business.

For more information about EV SSL Certificates and other authentication solutions, visit SSL Certificates.

About Comodo

With a global presence Comodo offers businesses and consumers third-generation solutions for intelligent security and authentication technologies that create trust online. Comodo's technological expertise includes PKI digital certification, Code signing certification, integrated authentication infrastructure services, Web Content authentication, Secure messaging solutions, PCI compliancy scanning, SSL digital certificates including our flagship InstantSSL brand, HackerGuardian, banking solutions including Two Factor Authentication, and digital e-commerce services.

For additional information on Comodo and creating trust online, visit Comodo.