Gartner Survey Shows Phishing Attacks Escalated in 2007; More than $3 Billion Lost to These Attacks Debit Cards Emerged as the Financial Instrument Targeted Most by Fraudsters STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Phishing attacks in the United States soared in 2007 as $3.2 billion was lost to these attacks, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. The survey found that 3.6 million adults lost money in phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in August 2007, as compared with the 2.3 million who did so the year before. According to a survey of more than 4,500 online U.S. adults in August 2007 (which was representative of the online U.S. adult population) the attacks were more successful in 2007 than they were in the previous two years. Of consumers who received phishing e-mails in 2007, 3.3 percent say they lost money because of the attack, compared with 2.3 percent who lost money in 2006, and 2.9 percent who did so in 2005, according to similar Gartner surveys during those years. "Phishing attacks are becoming more surreptitious and are often designed to drop malware that steals user credentials and sensitive information from consumer desktops," ID Theft How big is the problem of identity theft? It’s the fastest growing crime in America, with 27.3 million victims in the past five years, and nearly 20 million in the past two years alone, according to a study from Javelin Strategy & Research. This crime costs more than $56 billion, or $6,383 per victim, annually, and has become so prevalent that an identity thief strikes on average every 3.5 seconds. ID theft has now surpassed drug trafficking as the No. 1 crime in America, according to the Justice Department. Porn Though it's far from breaking news that Internet porn is so popular, these numbers are pretty amazing: • 12 percent of all Web sites are porn • 25 percent of all search engine requests are for porn • 35 percent of all Internet downloads are pornographic • Every second, 28,258 Internet users are viewing porn and $89.00 is spent on Inet porn • 89 percent of porn is created in the U.S. • $2.84 billion in revenue was generated from U.S. porn sites in 2006 • 70 percent of the Internet porn traffic occurs during the nine to five workday • 266 new porn sites go online daily • Sex is the most searched word on the Inet • 72% are men 28% women • 372 million porn web pages > Vulnerabilities > Spyware > SPAM > Malware > Phishing