Frankfurt, 10 June 2005 – Portum AG is the first e-sourcing and SRM provider to release an anti-phishing package. This package effectively reduces the risk of unauthorised access to the Portum platform and further increases IT security for the customer.
The term ‘phishing’ is a combination of the words ‘password’ and ‘fishing’. It is taken to mean the fraudulent attempt to obtain user data via the Internet by surreptitious means. As a rule, this occurs by means of e-mails in which users are requested to enter personal data, passwords and PIN codes. According to IT security company MessageLabs, phishing e-mails are on the increase. In September 2003, only 279 such e-mails were registered, whereas in the first quarter of 2004 this number had already risen to 215,643. At present, English-speaking markets are the hardest hit, in particular banks and Internet auction houses for private customers.
So far, the number of phishing attacks in Germany has been limited. To date there have been no known attacks on the Portum platform. “Because our customers often deal with sensitive data, the security of the ASP platform is of utmost importance to us”, emphasises Wolfram Sommer, vice president for product development at Portum AG, “with our anti-phishing technology we’re in a position to prevent these attacks before they happen.”
