Financial services group launches phishing counteroffensive

The FSTC's counter-phishing initiative will define technical and operation requirements of financial institutions for counter-phishing measures. It also will document the infrastructure requirements and impact of technologies when deployed together with customer education, enforcement and other industry initiatives.

The three-phased effort will incorporate the work of other groups, including the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The first phase, which will last four months, will produce a registry of phishing threats and an inventory of available solutions, among other deliverables.

Phishing involves fraudulent emails, usually with links to web sites, that appear to come from legitimate sources such as banks and try to trick users into divulging personal data.

FSTC is a group of financial services firms, technology vendors, and government agencies that works to advance open-standards technologies in the financial industry.

www.fstc.org