Cybercrime in 2007 was aimed at banks

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A review of Internet threats during the past year shows U.S. banks were the main target of cyberthieves.

The survey released by IBM found that major banks were the targets in 19 of the top 20 phishing attacks -- generally in the form of official looking e-mails designed to trick recipients into thinking the e-mails are from their bank, CNN reported. The goal is to convince the victim to give up account numbers and personal identification information.

IBM's "X-Force" security experts noted a diminished number of hacker attacks aimed at crashing entire Internet systems. These days, hackers are more likely to use secretive malware to try to take over the system and use it commit other crimes.

"The (malware) authors realize they are better off as parasites than they are killing their hosts," said Chris Rouland, chief technology officer for IBM Internet security.