Security firm McAfee said that the first phishing attack based on the loss has only just occurred, despite the disks going missing nearly three months ago.
Toralv Dirro, a security strategist at McAfee Avert Labs, believes that this is down to greater security awareness on the part of UK consumers.
"It is first time that we have seen this kind of phishing attack," he told vnunet.com. "The IRS gets hit by this kind of attack all the time, but it is much less common in the UK."
The phishing attack uses a spoofed email header claiming that the message comes from HMRC. It informs the recipient that they have a tax rebate of £215 waiting, and asks for bank account details.
Phishers slow to capitalise on HMRC data loss
By
Iain Thomson
on Feb 25, 2008 9:49AM
Phishers have been unusually slow to capitalise on the lost HM Revenue & Customs data disks.
Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Partner Content
Promoted Content
Why IT spending should be transformational, not just transactional
Promoted Content
IT’s control over digital infrastructure is slipping, reports The Economist Intelligence Unit
Promoted Content
AWS She Builds seeks to bridge the great IT gender gap
Promoted Content
Why CIOs must now think differently about application security
Sponsored Whitepapers
Understanding the next security control points: applications and workloads
Best security practices after rapid Digital Transformation
The CISO View 2021 Survey: Zero Trust and Privileged Access
How and why to backup your Office 365 tenant
ForgeRock for Australia’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)
