Two of the biggest names in computer security announced moves to help the war against phishing attacks this week, as the $1.4 billion problem attracts increasing attention.

Phishing attacks use fraudulent e-mails designed to defraud the recipient. The e-mails use the brand names and logos of financial companies and online retailers to convince the recipients to share confidential information, including credit card numbers, PINs, passwords, account numbers, Social Security numbers, and more.

RSA Security announced this week it is joining the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry coalition committed to combating phishing scams and online identity theft.

RSA is the largest vendor of two-factor authentication products, which add tokens, PINs and USB keys to traditional user name and password authentication schemes, making it more difficult to access accounts and personal information. Earlier this month, RSA outlined a plan to bring its two-factor authentication products to the consumer and small and medium-size business (SMB) environments.

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group APWG, the number of unique phishing attacks it monitored rose from 116 in December 2003 to 1,422 in June 2004. Gartner Research estimates that phishing schemes alone have cost banks $1.3 billion.

''The Anti-Phishing Working Group has consistently found that the financial services industry is the most targeted sector for phishing attacks, with an average of more than 35 reported unique phishing attacks per company in June 2004,'' said Peter Cassidy, the Anti-Phishing Working Group's secretary general. ''All indications from the field are that the threat continues to grow apace, with new innovations and approaches being developed by phishers appearing seemingly every week.''

Security software vendor Symantec this week announced its Symantec Online Fraud Management Solution, an enterprise product for mitigating online fraud.

Symantec's offering includes an e-mail fraud detection network, which automatically detects and blocks fraudulent e-mail. Using a probe network and millions of decoy accounts, it attracts and delivers suspicious e-mail to Symantec researchers who analyze the messages, identify fraud attacks, and create and automatically deploy anti-fraud filters to block the fraudulent e-mails. It also provides alerts to enterprises within minutes so steps can be taken with law enforcement to shut down fraudulent sites and identify perpetrators.

Symantec will also provide enterprises with a comprehensive resource center to help consumers understand Internet security threats and assess their specific computer's exposure to these threats.

This article was first published on InsideID.com.