MailFrontier Releases Phishing Index for July 2004

Palo Alto, Calif. – August 26, 2004 – MailFrontier™, a pioneer in email security and leading provider of anti-spam solutions, today released the Phishing Index™ for July 2004.  According to MailFrontier Research, July’s Phishing Index was 9.3.  The third month of the Phishing Index marks a slight downturn since June’s Index of 9.4.

MailFrontier’s Phishing Index tracks user vulnerability to phishing in a concerted effort to fight these scams more knowledgeably and effectively.  Based on a scale from 1 to 100, the index is a compilation of an exhaustive evaluation of thousands of phishing emails and how people interact with those messages.  The higher the index, the more effective the phishing scams.

In July, MailFrontier launched its Phishing IQ Test at www.mailfrontier.com where individuals are encouraged to test their ability to identify phishing emails. Respondents view 10 real-life emails and vote on the status: legitimate or fraud.  To date, more than 190,000 individuals have tested their Phishing IQ.  Approximately 30 percent of the responses inaccurately identify phishing emails as legitimate, or legitimate emails as phishing scams.  These results mirror findings of an earlier MailFrontier national survey fielded in July and commissioned with Issues & Answers Network that found that 28 percent of U.S. adults inaccurately identified a phishing scam versus a legitimate email.

MailFrontier Research publishes email fraud advisories on the latest phishing attacks on the company’s Email Threat Information Center.  In addition, alerts on new, highly destructive phishing scams are proactively pushed to MailFrontier customers.  More information on MailFrontier’s Phishing Index and the “Scam of the Week,” including actual screen shots of this latest phishing attack, can be found on MailFrontier’s Email Threat Information Center http://www.mailfrontier.com/threats/index.html.

About MailFrontier
MailFrontier is a leading provider of email security solutions that stop unwanted email by protecting enterprises from the growing number of dangerous and costly email threats while giving them the ability to anticipate and stop new threats as they emerge. MailFrontier offers a comprehensive defense against all known email threats, including spam, viruses, phishing, blended threats and other attacks, such as directory harvest attacks. The company has more than 700 customers, including Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Pier 1 Imports, PNM Resources, San Francisco Giants and Wyndham International. Founded in February 2002, MailFrontier is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For additional information, go to www.mailfrontier.com.

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MailFrontier and Phishing Index are trademarks of MailFrontier Incorporated.  All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.