Financial institutions stand to suffer an estimated $400m in fraud losses resulting from phishing attacks in 2004, according to research by Financial Insights.
According to the research, the number of unqiue phishing attacks reported to The Anti-Phishing Working Group increased from just 19 in November 2003 to 1197 May 2004.
Financial Insights says in addition to the management of ID theft cases, institutions targeted by phishers are also incurring additional organisational costs and are suffering from an erosion in customer trust.
Sophie Louvel, research analyst and author of the report, says most of the anti-phishing systems currently available are focused on detection of phishing attacks, but it will require significant and widespread security enhancements to e-mail technology - including sender authentication - to curb these attacks.